Finally, AAP breaks silence; Mann to visit family today

The decision that Mann will visit the family of Moosewala, who had contested this year’s Assembly elections as a Congress candidate — was taken during CM’s meeting with Aam Aadmi Party national convenor Arvind Kejriwal in Delhi. Mann and Kejriwal met in the aftermath of the AAP government in Punjab drawing flak for withdrawing and pruning the security and releasing the names of protectees, including that of Moosewala who was shot dead on May 29. The party also avoided attending the singer’s cremation with its leaders meeting the family only on Wednesday.

On the day Moosewala was being cremated, Mann had received and seen off Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the Chandigarh Airport twice when the former was on way to Shimla and later while returning to Delhi. The social media was abuzz with Mann’s photographs with PM stating that he had the time to get photos clicked with Modi but not for Moosewala’s family.

The state government had not sent anyone to represent the CM at Moosewala’s cremation even as Punjab Congress chief Amrinder Singh Raja Warring camped at village Moosa for three days. On Thursday, Mann sent two Cabinet ministers — Harpal Cheema and Kuldeep Singh Dhaliwal — to meet Moosewala’s grieving family.

During the day, a team of BJP leaders including Union Minister Gajendra Shekhawat and Sunil Jakhar apart from Shiromani Akali president chief Sukhbir Singh Badal and his MP wife Harsimrat Kaur Badal also met Moosewala’s parents.

Meanwhile, the ruling party accused the opposition political outfits of playing “dirty politics” over Moosewala’s death saying that the incident has exposed the “double-standards” of Akali Dal and Congress.

Addressing a press conference, AAP’s chief spokesperson Malvinder Singh Kang said: “Those leaders, who have been associating Sidhu with gangsters and blaming him for promoting gun culture in Punjab, are now playing cheap tactics to gain political mileage and malign the AAP government’s clean image.”

It was the first time when the AAP officially spoke up on the issue of Moosewala’s death — For last three days, the party’s media cell had maintained a complete silence.

Lambasting the Akali Dal chief, Kang claimed that Sukhbir Badal had called Moosewala a gangster.

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“The gangsters and mafia regime flourished during decades of ruling by both the Congress and Akali Dal. The future of youngsters was annihilated by drugs in Punjab due to their nefarious governance. However, now they are attempting to put all blame for all their wrongdoings with Punjabis on the AAP government,” said Kang.

H e said it is condemnable that instead of sharing grief with the slain singer’s family, the Congress was “chalking out strategies” for the upcoming Sangrur Lok Sabha bypoll and their leaders were “shedding crocodile tears” at the singer’s last rites for political gains.

“The Opposition parties are perturbed with the dynamic functioning of the AAP government in just two months, which they could not do in decades. They want to defame the government by hook and crook and their ostensible goal is to spoil peace in Punjab,” Kang alleged.