AAP – Victim card in Delhi, role reversal in Punjab

Chandigarh: Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led centre have been at daggers drawn ever since the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) booked Delhi deputy chief minister and senior AAP leader Manish Sisodia for his alleged role in Delhi government’s ‘faulty’ excise policy.

AAP chief and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal claimed the CBI-ED raids were attempts to topple his government. 

The BJP denied the charge and called out AAP for playing the victim card.

In Punjab, a similar script is being played out but there is a role reversal. Ever since winning the assembly election in March this year, the AAP arrested two former Congress ministers and initiated inquiries against at least four others. 

Recently Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann hinted that the decisions of former Congress CM Charanjit Singh Channi were also under scanner.  

The latest arrest came on Monday, August 22 when Punjab Vigilance Bureau arrested the former food minister in the previous Congress government (2017-2022), Bharat Bhushan Ashu, in an alleged food grains transportation tenders scam. 

Earlier in June, former social welfare and forests Sadhu Singh Dharamsot was arrested under Prevention of Corruption Act for allegedly seeking kickbacks in the issuance of tree cutting permits and purchases. Another former minister Sangat Singh Gilzian was also booked in the same FIR.

In June itself, the current Rural Development and Panchayats minister in AAP government Kuldeep Singh Dhaliwal held a press conference to say that his predecessor and former Congress minister Tripat Rajinder Singh Bajwa had allowed sale of panchayat land at Bhagtupura village in Amritsar when model code of conduct was in place. 

Dhaliwal said that he had ordered a probe into the case and strict action would be taken. 

The investigating agencies under the current AAP regime did not limit their action on Congress leaders alone.

Soon after forming the government, Kejriwal’s old party colleagues-turned-adversaries - Kumar Vishwas and Alka Lamba - were booked for inflammatory statements against Kejriwal during Punjab polls in February.

Later, both got relief from Punjab and Haryana High Court against their arrest. In Kumar Vishwas’s petition, HC even observed that political bias could not be ruled out. 

Later, Punjab made a huge spectacle in May this year when it reached the national capital to arrest Delhi BJP leader Tajinder Singh Bagga but Delhi and Haryana police did not let Punjab arrest Bagga.

Political drama from Delhi to Chandigarh 

If the AAP is protesting against the BJP-led central government in Delhi for ‘vendetta’ politics, Congress has been holding a similar protest against the AAP government in Punjab. 

Hours before the arrest of former Congress minister Bharat Bhushan Ashu on Monday, Punjab Congress leaders under the leadership of Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee (PPCC) chief Amarinder Singh Raja Warring stormed into the office of Punjab Vigilance Bureau in Mohali and protested against the arrest of its leaders by AAP government. 

The leaders said that all Congress leaders in Punjab were ready to court arrest as they were fed up with vendetta politics by the AAP government.

AAP’s chief spokesperson Malvinder Singh Kang however rejected the allegations and asked them why they were afraid of vigilance investigation. 

“If they are innocent and have nothing to hide then why are they running away from a fair probe? Face the equitable probe and prove their innocence in the courts,” Kang said.

On the other hand, PPCC chief Amarinder Singh Raja Warring took a dig at AAP saying that if this was AAP stand, why then it was crying wolf over CBI raids on Manish Sisodia residence over liquor licensing bungling.

Saying AAP lacked the moral authority to claim high moral ground on Sisodia’s arrest, he added, “You (AAP) have been using the Vigilance Department against Congress leaders on flimsy grounds and crying wolf in Delhi for similar action.”

Warring, in a letter addressed to chief director vigilance bureau, said that the AAP government was using vigilance in Punjab to cover up its failures in fulfilling the promises it made to the people of Punjab. Also, it wanted to divert the attention from the corruption scandal that is tumbling out of their cupboard in Delhi.

Another Congress leader Sukhpal Khaira took on AAP for selective action. He asked why AAP is taking action only against Congress or opposition leaders. "Why is there no action against its own Rajya Sabha MP Ashok Mittal for land encroachments with crores," he questioned.