MHA, in a statement, said that the road was blocked by some protestors and PM Modi was stuck on a flyover for 15-20 minutes. (ANI) The Punjab unit of BJP Wednesday slammed Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi over Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s cavalcade being stopped near Ferozepur and said it could not have happened without a sanction from the Chief Minister and his government. The saffron party also demanded Channi and his entire cabinet’s immediate resignation.
Addressing a press conference in Ferozepur after the PM had to return to Bathinda because of the protests, state BJP President Ashwani Sharma said that it is a matter of shame that the state government failed to provide adequate security to the Prime Minister.
Flanked by Union Minister Meenakshi Lekhi and newly-joined leader of the party from Congress Rana Gurmit Singh Sodhi, Sharma said, “The PM’s cavalcade had been blocked as part of a conspiracy. Buses filled with BJP supporters heading towards Ferozepur from various parts of the state were also stopped due to the same conspiracy.”
He added, “The PM had to come by road from Bathinda because of the inclement weather and wanted to first pay his respects at the martyrs memorial dedicated to Bhagat Singh, Sukhdev and Rajguru at Husseiniwala. However, he was prevented from doing so due to a laxity by the Punjab government and this is also an insult to the martyrs.”
Sharma added that the PM had come to Punjab to gift something to the people of the state. “I hesitate to call this ruling regime a ‘government’. What kind of a government is it that fails to provide security to the PM? They have disgraced democracy too. Every few days you see one tweet or the other by Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Vadra over democracy. Today you will not see any tweets from them and even if you do, it will be a childish one,” he said.
The state BJP president also said that given the law and order situation in Punjab, the Election Commission must take cognisance of the same and take charge of conducting the elections at the earliest. “This government is not capable of looking after the law and order in the state. If the Chief Minister has an iota of integrity, he and the cabinet should immediately resign,” he said.
Sharma added 3,484 buses of BJP supporters were headed to Ferozepur for the PM’s rally but at several places, protestors were allowed by the Punjab Police to stop these buses from reaching the rally venue.
“BJP supporters were also lathi charged by the Punjab Police personnel who were openly acting in cahoots with the protestors,” he said. He added that the BJP would soon release videos of the various bus stopping incidents which took place across the state.
Lekhi said BJP supporters were beaten up by the police at many places and their buses were stoned by “so-called protestors” who were essentially Congress workers. “We want to tell Channi that we also know how to do politics and we will give him a befitting reply in his own house,” Lekhi said.
Meanwhile, national general secretary of BJP Tarun Chugh said the CM and state Congress president Navjot Singh Sidhu caused a security threat to the PM and that both are playing into the hands of Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI).
Chugh said, “Channi and Sidhu are dancing to the tune of Pakistan’s ISI. Time has come for Punjab to wake up to the nefarious designs of the two.”
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