AAP in Punjab targeting political opponents: BJP leader Jakhar

Chandigarh: Slamming the Bhagwant Mann regime's "fixation" on targetting political opponents, Punjab unit BJP President Sunil Jakhar on Friday led the charge in demanding a thorough investigation into all cases filed against opposition leaders during the last 18 months.

"There is an eery coherence in AAP's machinations to suppress the voice of opposition by targeting them with motivated cases,” Jakhar said here while reacting to Congress leader Sukhpal Khaira's arrest in a 2015 drugs case.

The timing of registration of case against Manpreet Badal coincided with the Governor raising questions of fiscal propriety from the Chief Minister, Jakhar said, alluding to a tactic of diverting attention from core issues of the public concern underlining the need to evolve a guard-rails in form of a robust mechanism to guard against tyranny of those in power by misuse of law enforcement.

Responding to a media query, Jakhar said that Khaira's arrest is a direct consequence of Congress infighting.

Leaders of Punjab Congress are on a mission to finish each other and whatever is left of the party in Punjab, Jakhar quipped, adding that if there was any semblance of leadership in the Congress on Friday, they would have called off their alliance with AAP immediately.

By making Khaira the fall-guy, the Punjab Congress leaders have sidelined him while at the same time the Congress has given AAP the handle to use its hollow 'action against corruption' drumbeat.

"Punjabis know both AAP and the Congress are hands in glove," Jakhar said.

Castigating the state government for hoodwinking the people's issues by creating media hype over these fake arrests, Jakhar said concerns over lack of employment generation, ever-rising crime graph and abject absence of government machinery on the ground have been deliberately put on back burner by AAP leadership.

People of Punjab have seen through these gimmicks and they are waiting for a chance to teach AAP a lesson in coming parliamentary polls, the veteran Punjab leader said, assuring the citizens of a fair and transparent government in Punjab under the BJP.