The Bharatiya Janata Party, which many believe would like to go it alone in the next Punjab Assembly elections, on Monday sought the resignation of State Revenue Minister and senior Akali leader Bikram Singh Majithia, following an Enforcement Directorate summons to him in the Rs. 6,000-crore synthetic drugs case.
The BJP, which had earlier sought the resignation of Shiromani Akali Dal Chief Parliamentary Secretary Avinash Chander, after he too was summoned in the case, has now made its stance clear through its national secretary Tarun Chugh.
In a statement, Mr. Chugh urged Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal to adhere to the high moral ground taken by the party when it asked then Jail Minister Sarwan Singh Phillaur to step down after the name of his son, Damanvir Singh, surfaced in the case. Mr. Majithia should be told to resign as “… it would not be in the interest of either the Akali Dal or the government to apply different yardsticks to different persons involved in the case,” Mr. Chugh said.
Mr. Chugh pointed out that the adherence to this principle would also be in line with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s stand on the issue of drugs. In the third episode of his radio programme, “Mann ki Baat,” Mr. Modi had spoken about the drug menace in Punjab and the need to stem it. This had prompted both Mr. Badal and his son, Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Badal, to say that Punjab was doing all it could but the inability of the Border Security Force to prevent drug smuggling was primarily responsible for the menace.
Meanwhile, Punjab Congress, which on Sunday sought Mr. Majithia’s resignation, has now decided to bring in a no-confidence motion against the Badal government. Announcing the move, Congress Legislature Party leader Sunil Jakhar said since the State BJP president had demanded Mr. Majithia’s resignation, it would have been in the fitness of things for the party to have moved the no-trust motion or withdrawn from the alliance. But it was evident that the BJP was the Badal government’s partner in “all acts of omission and commission”.
For its part, the SAD on Monday ridiculed the Punjab Congress for trying to disrupt the winter session of the Assembly through the motion. “Every time before the start of a session they demand more time for discussion. However every time, they hatch a conspiracy to stall the proceedings. This time is no different,” several senior SAD Ministers said in a statement.
Arguing that no meaning should be read into the summons issued to Mr. Majithia, they said: “The drug lord who made false allegations against Mr Majithia had old links with members of the Punjab Congress and was used by the party to malign the minister”.
