Punjab Outlook

 Chandigarh/New Delhi. BJP National General Secretary Tarun Chugh has slammed Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal and Punjab CM Bhagwant Mann for “weaponising state agencies” to arrest Shiromani Akali Dal leader Bikram Singh Majithia. Chugh said, “This is pure political vendetta. Kejriwal apologised to Majithia in 2018 for levelling baseless and unfounded charges on drugs—if that apology was genuine, how is it that Majithia has become an accused today? That exposes Kejriwal’s hypocrisy.” After a Delhi court has prima facie found Kejriwal guilty of corruption and told him that he does not deserve to occupy the chief minister’s chair, Kejriwal is now running his “danda tantra” in Punjab. Chugh added that Punjab is sliding into a full-blown police state. “On the 50th anniversary of Indira Gandhi’s Emergency, Kejriwal has revived its very spirit—crushing dissent on the diktats of one authoritarian mind.” He accused the Mann government of “net-casting for small fish” and opposition voices while letting the real drug kingpins roam free. Calling the much-hyped ‘Yuddh Nashiyan Virudh’ drive a “PR stunt designed to muzzle the opposition”, Chugh asserted that whatever the truth in the Majithia case, it must be placed before the public transparently, without abusing the machinery of the state. He urged all opposition leaders in Punjab to speak out against this tyranny and appealed to the people of Punjab to “rise and uproot such unconstitutional, dictatorial forces”. “This land once defied the Emergency,” Chugh said. “It must do so again.”