Punjab CM Mann hits back at Amarinder Singh for remarks on Akali leader Majithia’s arrest

A day after former chief minister Amarinder Singh accused the AAP government of “targeted harassment” of Akali leader Bikram Singh Majithia, Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann on Saturday hit back, calling Singh “double-faced” on the drug menace issue.

“You are concerned about the human rights of drug smugglers...,” Mann said in a post on X and also questioned Singh on his 2017 poll promise of eradicating the drug menace within four weeks.

CM Mann was reacting to Singh’s allegations that the AAP government “believes that cheap sensationalism, political vendetta, and ruthless repression are substitutes for governance”.

“Punjab has never seen such a blatant assault on democracy where critics of their misrule and corruption are being house-arrested, falsely charged, and silenced,” Amarinder Singh, who left the Congress in 2021 to float his own party and merged it with the BJP a year later, alleged in a Facebook post.

“The targeted harassment of Bikram Singh Majithia is a shocking example of their inhuman tactics. I strongly condemn this political persecution. Mass protests are being crushed, dissent is being muzzled, and Punjab is being remotely controlled from Delhi like a mafia operation,” Singh further alleged.

Without naming anyone, Mann in his post on X, wrote on Saturday, “Captain Sahib (Amarinder Singh), today you are concerned about the human rights of drug smugglers. When people’s sons were dying in agony during your and your nephew’s rule, you were busy in gatherings.”

“Now Punjab has come to know that you all are double-faced, but, unfortunately, after losing a lot. The BJP will now dismiss your statement by calling it personal...,” he said.

Last month, the Punjab Vigilance Bureau arrested Majithia in a case of alleged disproportionate assets involving laundering of Rs 540 crore of “drug money”. Majithia is in judicial custody till August 2.