Chandigarh (Gurpreet Singh): Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) Punjab leader and Cabinet Minister Harbhajan Singh ETO on Thursday slammed Punjab Congress president Amarinder Singh Raja Warring and the Congress party for trying to derive political mileage from the tragic death of late Gulzar Singh, saying that Congress should stop doing politics over dead bodies and allow the law to take its course.
In a statement, Cabinet Minister Harbhajan Singh ETO said that the death of Gulzar Singh is a deeply painful incident and the Punjab Government had already taken concrete action in the matter. “An SIT has been constituted to conduct a comprehensive investigation and five persons have been booked under provisions relating to abetment to suicide and the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act,” he added.
The Minister said that instead of giving the grieving family time and space to recover from their irreparable loss, Congress leaders are trying to turn the tragedy into a political opportunity.
Harbhajan Singh ETO said that Congress leaders had no standing to preach to Punjab about sensitivity towards the dead when the history of their party was itself marked by some of the darkest chapters in the country’s history. “Punjab has not forgotten 1984. Punjab has not forgotten the killings of innocent Punjabis. Punjab has not forgotten the political protection and patronage that surrounded Congress leaders associated with the anti-Sikh violence. Former Congress MP Sajjan Kumar was convicted in 1984-riot cases and remains a symbol of that dark chapter,” he said.
The Minister said Congress’s record becomes even more questionable when the conduct of its present Punjab president is examined. “Raja Warring should explain to the people of Punjab why he made objectionable remarks about the late Sardar Buta Singh, a prominent Dalit leader who rose from Punjab to become Union Home Minister,” he added.
“Buta Singh ji was a towering Dalit leader who broke barriers through his hard work and public service. Yet Raja Warring chose to make derogatory and colour-based references to him. An FIR was registered over those remarks, and the National Commission for Scheduled Castes subsequently directed the Punjab Police to act in the matter. The same Raja Warring is now lecturing Punjab about Dalit dignity,” said Harbhajan Singh ETO.
Harbhajan Singh ETO pointedly asked, “Where was this concern for Dalits when Raja Warring was making remarks against Sardar Buta Singh? Where was Congress’s concern for Punjab when the 1984 massacre took place? And where was this moral outrage when Congress leaders associated with that dark period continued to enjoy political influence? Punjab remembers everything.”
He said, “Rahul Gandhi tweets from Delhi and Raja Warring arrives in Punjab, but both are trying to do politics over a dead body. Instead of giving the grieving family time and space to recover from their irreparable loss, Congress is turning their pain into a political opportunity. This is unacceptable.”
Harbhajan Singh ETO said the people of Punjab had repeatedly rejected the politics of fear, communal division and exploitation of human tragedies. “Congress should remember one thing clearly: Punjab will not allow anyone to turn the death of a poor Dalit worker into a ladder for political ambition,” he added.
