The Bharatiya Janata Party on Monday alleged that the Punjab police were hand in glove with disruptive forces targeting the party offices and its workers in the past few days.
A party delegation led by former Punjab Cabinet Minister Madan Mohan Mittal met Director General of Police Dinkar Gupta here and expressed concern over the deteriorating law and order situation in the State.
A statement issued by the party later said that despite information, the police failed to prevent the attack on BJP workers during the birth anniversary of former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee in Bathinda last week. The delegation demanded that appropriate Sections be included in the FIR against culprits.
The delegation asserted that in the garb of farmers, divisive and disruptive forces were at play and the State police must act against them, said the statement.
Punjab Cabinet Ministers, meanwhile, asked State BJP president Ashwani Sharma to not cross lines of propriety and decency in political discourse.
In a joint statement, senior Cabinet Ministers including Brahm Mohindra, Bharat Bhushan Ashu, Vijay Inder Singla, O.P. Soni and Sunder Sham Arora hit out at Mr. Sharma, accusing him of levelling unfounded allegations against the top police officer of the State.
The Ministers flayed Mr. Sharma for trying to vitiate the peaceful atmosphere of Punjab by irresponsible statements. The BJP was shamelessly trying to divert attention from pressing issues the nation faced by indulging in irresponsible and dangerous politicking but the Punjab government would never allow the Centre to succeed in its plans to destroy agriculture at the behest of crony capitalists, added the Ministers.
Pointing out that the BJP had miserably failed to read the pulse of farmers across the country, the Ministers said Punjabis were feeling cheated by the Centre’s policies and would demonstrate their anguish by packing off the BJP from the State in the next Assembly elections.
