A day after Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s security lapse in Punjab, Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi on Thursday said it was wrong to blame his government for the Prime Minister going back without addressing an event. The actual reason for the decision was the “poor response” to Mr. Modi’s proposed gathering in Ferozepur, he stated.
The Punjab government, meanwhile, constituted a high-level committee to investigate the security lapse.
At a rally in Machhiwara, Mr. Channi said, “Punjabis have never ever shied away from making sacrifices for the nation and none can question the nationalistic credentials of Punjab. The fact of the matter surrounding the Prime Minister going back without addressing the gathering was that barely 700 people turned up at rally site. This forced him to retrace his steps and later the blame was pinned on our government citing security threat to Mr. Modi. The truth is that five days before the scheduled rally of the Prime Minister, the Special Protection Group took over the landing spot, rally site and each security detail but later on the Prime Minister’s cavalcade suddenly took land route.” The route was cleared by the SPG, he noted.
If there was any danger to the Prime Minister, then every Punjabi was nationalist enough to shed his blood and face the bullets as they have done before in the service of the nation, he stated. He asked forces inimical to Punjab to stop defaming the State. “The anti-Punjab forces should shun vendetta politics and ponder over why the people especially farmers don’t like them,” he stressed.
Probe panel
An official statement said, “In order to carry out a thorough probe into the lapses that occurred during Prime Minister’s visit to Ferozepur yesterday, the Punjab government has constituted a high-level committee”.
The committee, comprising justice Mehtab Singh Gill (retd.) and Principal Secretary, Home Affairs and Justice, Anurag Verma, would submit its report within three days, it stated.
The Prime Minister’s event at Ferozepur was cancelled after his convoy was stuck on a flyover for 15-20 minutes as the road was blocked by protesters near the National Martyrs Memorial in Hussainiwala.
The Ministry of Home Affairs termed it “a major lapse in the security of PM”. It sought a detailed report from the State government and asked it to fix responsibility for the lapse and take strict action.
Amarinder criticises Channi
Former Chief Minister and head of the Punjab Lok Congres Captain Amarinder Singh (retd.) hit out at Mr. Channi and Deputy Chief Minister and Home Minister Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa for “behaving like cowards by running away from their responsibilities”.
Addressing a public meeting at Samana, he said, “there was a grave security lapse and the Chief Minister Channi and the Deputy Chief Minister Randhawa, who heads the Home department, should own the responsibility. True leaders own up responsibilities and do not pass the buck on others. This is no leadership, it is cowardice.”
He regretted that Punjab had suffered a loss in the image over yesterday’s incident. “Whole world was watching that the Punjab government failed to provide safe and secure passage to the Prime Minister to launch various development projects”, he observed, adding that it was Punjab’s loss on other fronts also, as the Prime Minister was supposed to inaugurate projects worth ₹ 43,000 crore that included few hospitals and roads and which have not got delayed.