Senior Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) leader Parambans Singh Romana today asked chief minister Bhagwant Mann to explain the underhand deal he had arrived at with Congress leader Sukhpal Khaira by agreeing not to prosecute him, even as he asserted that the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) were making unholy alliances to put up joint candidates against the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD).
In a statement here, Parambans Romana said it was shocking that the Punjab government had given an undertaking in the Supreme Court that it would not proceed with the trial against Sukhpal Khaira in the 2015 drug case, even though the AAP government had formed an SIT to reinvestigate the case and announced that incriminating evidence had been found against Khaira. Asking the chief minister as to why he was defending a drug trafficker in the Supreme Court, Mr Romana said “this is being done despite the fact that the charge sheet filed against Khaira in the drug case states that he had made 78 calls to drug trafficker Gurdev Singh and had also spent Rs 6.50 crore above his known sources of income”.
Asserting that all this was due to the India alliance of which AAP was a part, the Akali leader said “Bhagwant Mann is on record to have praised Sonia Gandhi even more than the Congress leaders with whom he shared the stage in Delhi recently”. He said it was a fact that AAP was in alliance with the Congress party in Delhi, Haryana, Himachal and Gujarat. “An official alliance could not be effected in Punjab but now the AAP government in Punjab has decided to help Sukhpal Khaira who is desirous of contesting from Sangrur by stopping the trial in the drugs case in which he is an accused”. He said in return AAP would receive help from the Congress on specific seats.
Asking the chief minister to explain his flip flop on this issue, Romana said “Bhagwant Mann has said on record in the Vidhan Sabha that despite being named in a drug case in 2015, Khaira had used his influence in the previous Congress government to evade justice and asserted that now he would have to face the law”. Romana said AAP Convener Arvind Kejriwal had also while referring to Khaira announced that all drug traffickers would be sent to jail.
Romana also asked the chief minister to explain his stand on corruption. He said the chief minister often swore that he would proceed against the corrupt but was actually using this as a tool to strike deals with his opponents. “Bhagwant Mann announced in the assembly that a file detailing Punjab Pradesh Congress president Amarinder Singh Raja Warring’s corruption in procuring bus bodies of the PRTC from Rajasthan during his stint as Transport minister was with him. However no action has been taken in the matter till now indicating that Bhagwant Mann has struck a deal with Raja Warring also”, the Akali leader added.
Asking Punjabis to beware of all Delhi based parties who were striking deals to avert an SAD victory in the forthcoming parliamentary polls; Romana also congratulated SAD president Sukhbir Singh Badal for taking a principled stand and not aligning with the BJP because it did not address issues relating to the Sikh community and Punjab.