Won’t give in to coercion, says Bajwa

Leader of the Opposition in the Punjab Assembly Partap Singh Bajwa on Tuesday said he could not be intimidated by “arm-twisting tactics” and warned Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann of consequences for registering a “false case” against him.

The leader made the remarks addressing reporters after attending a meeting of senior party leaders at Punjab Congress Bhawan here.

The Punjab Police have booked Bajwa for allegedly spreading misinformation that could compromise national security and unity over his “50-bombs-have-reached-Punjab” claim.

At the meeting, the party decided to intensify its protest over the action against Bajwa, with state Congress chief Amrinder Singh Raja Warring alleging that Punjab had become a “police state” where those questioning the government “could be booked or arrested under false cases”.

Commenting over the action against him, Bajwa accused CM Mann of questioning his patriotism.

“We have a history of making sacrifices for the country. He does not know what happened in early nineties. The situation in Punjab right now is very serious, about which every Punjabi is concerned,” he said, adding that his father had sacrificed his life for the country, while he had been “attacked with bombs” during the days of militancy in Punjab. Taking a jibe at the Chief Minister over his remarks that Bajwa was “searching for lawyers”, the Congress leader asked Mann whether his AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal and senior leader Manish Sisodia had come out of the Tihar jail without any lawyers. Kejriwal and Sisodia are facing corruption cases linked to the now-scrapped Delhi excise police for 2021-22.

Moreover, he said the Mohali police “was not even providing a copy of the FIR to him” and he managed to get it only after the directions from a court.

Commenting on AAP allegations that he has “links with smugglers and terrorists”, and about an 11-year-old purported letter written by former CM Amarinder Singh to Sonia Gandhi, Bajwa said the former CM had received a complaint, which he got investigated only to find that it was false.

Warring cautioned police officials, including the DGP and the SHO investigating the case, against succumbing to ruling Aam Aadmi Party’s pressure. “The Congress party will remember each and every official, who has intimidated and persecuted Congress leaders and workers under the AAP rule,” he asserted.

Warring said what Bajwa told to a TV channel had already been reported by a leading Hindi daily. He gave a detailed list of grenade attacks, which were reported from different parts of the state and “initially dismissed by the police as the tyre bursts and cylinder blasts”.

Former Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi said Mann should have shown some grace by discussing the crime situation of the state with Bajwa. “Instead, the Chief Minister decided to slap an FIR against him,” he added.

Former Deputy CM Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa said if Mann was so alert in registering FIRs, then why he did not order an inquiry into pro-Khalistan activist Gurpatwant Singh Pannun’s revelations that he had financed the AAP poll campaigns in the 2017 and 2022 Assembly poll.