Chandigarh: Chief minister Bhagwant Mann and Punjab’s leader of the opposition (LoP) Partap Singh Bajwa on Monday got into a heated exchange in the Punjab assembly on after the Congress leader raised questions on the functioning of the vigilance bureau in the state.
Bajwa in a strongly worded retort to chief minister Bhagwant Mann said he was the last man to support the corrupt but the latter could not be selective and vindictive only against the opposition leaders.
Reacting to this sharply, CM immediately rose from his seat and objected to the Bajwa’s remarks and said that corrupt people will not be spared at any cost.
He said that no one can stop him from acting against these culprits who have mercilessly robbed and ruined the state. Bhagwant Mann said that it is a sorry state of affairs that the Congress leaders are trying to patronize those people who have looted the wealth of the state by misusing the power given to them by people.
Ob this, Bajwa said he was a strong votary of providing a clean, corruption free and transparent governance to the people who vote political parties to power.
“ However you can not be cherry picking and selective against the opposition leaders. Why AAP’s former health minister from Punjab Dr. Vijay Singla is still in the party. If he is not good enough to be the cabinet minister what makes him so special to stay put in the AAP. Moreover Dr. Singla continues to claim to be absolutely honest and says Bhagwant Mann government can not blame him for corruption even of Rs. 1”, said Bajwa while adding that people of Punjab still did not know if the corruption case against him was being pursued diligently or not.
In case of former cabinet minister Fauja Singh Sarari it took several months for Bhagwant Mann to drop him out of the cabinet and that too after the huge pressure exerted by the opposition parties. “ However, Sarari too continues to stay put in the party and has not been arrested for corruption so far. Why is the Bhagwant Mann government so kind to him?”, added Bajwa.
In Delhi, Arvind Kejriwal continued to dub former AAP cabinet minister Satyendra Jain as an equivalent of Shaheede Aazam Bhagat Singh. Though the Enforcement Directorate (ED) and Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) had booked him for corruption and money laundering allegations.
“ Why double standards on Satyendra Jain. When Kejriwal and Mann claimed that Jain was being falsely implicated they wanted everyone to believe so. However when congress makes a similar charge in Punjab Bhagwant and the entire AAP leadership gets edgy and cagey”, said Bajwa.
Even in the case of Delhi deputy chief minister Manish Sisodhia, Kejriwal and Mann wanted every citizen to believe he is innocent and being unnecessarily harassed by the investigative agencies. Such double standards would not work.
Bajwa said if Bhagwant Mann actually wanted to fight corruption why he has failed to get his own party’s Rajya Sabha MPs Balbir Singh Seechewal and Ashok Mittal of Lovely Professional University (LPU) investigated by the vigilance bureau who have illegally encroached upon several acres of Panchayat land.
The congress leader said who could forget highhandedness of Kejriwal when Delhi congress leader Alka Lamba and the founder member of AAP Kumar Vishwas were falsely booked by the Punjab Police.