Jharuwale now drug dealers, vote for Congress too is vote against Punjab: Modi

Tribune News Service

Aparna Banerji

Jalandhar, May 24

“Jharuwale nashe ke wholesale vyapari hain (AAP leadership itself is mired in illicit drug trade),” Prime Minister Narendra Modi said at an election rally here this evening as he targeted the ruling party in Punjab.

Editorial: Modi in Punjab

“They had said they will finish the illicit drug trade within two months after coming to power. Instead of rooting out the menace, their leaders themselves have taken to the trade,” said PM Modi as he took a dig at the Aam Aadmi Party, which has ‘jharu’ (broom) as its poll symbol.

The PM claimed the drug mafia was having a free run while innumerable families were suffering. “Why won’t those who benefited from the Delhi liquor scam reap similar profits from the illicit drug trade in Punjab? The Congress imposed Emergency and AAP is going the Congress way... both parties have a common ideology. Any vote for either of these will be a vote against Punjab,” he said. Calling Punjab the face of the country, the PM said the Congress recognised the state only as “a piece of land”. “The Congress allowed Punjab’s division to ensure one family stays in power… Kartarpur was gifted to Pakistan. India had more than 90,000 Pakistani soldiers in its captivity, who could have been easily exchanged for Kartarpur,” he said.

‘Modi Modi’ chants rent the air when the PM arrived on the stage and also as his helicopter flew away. The protesting farmers who attempted to reach the rally venue were stopped about 5 km away. The packed venue had a large number of women supporters, all dressed in saffron sarees that were provided by a local councillor.

Speaking in defence of the media (without naming Ajit Group’s Managing Editor Barjinder Singh Hamdard against whom an FIR had been lodged over alleged misappropriation of funds), the PM said, “They are registering cases against media house that don’t give in to their pressure. This is their real face… The state BJP chief has vowed that the BJP won’t allow AAP’s excesses against the media.”

Earlier in Gurdaspur, the PM attacked the Congress over the 1984-anti Sikh riots, alleging that while it allowed the “massacre of Sikhs” and its governments at the Centre protected the rioters, he ensured the guilty were punished. “They fuelled separatism in Punjab. Then they got the massacre of Sikhs done in Delhi. Till the time the Congress remained in power at the Centre, it used to protect the rioters… It was Modi who got files of the anti-Sikh riots opened. It was Modi who ensured punishment to the guilty,” he said.

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