Lakhs of Youth Akali Dal (YAD) activists today held demonstrations at each and every district headquarter in Punjab, including one in front of the residence of Punjab Pradesh Congress president Partap Singh Bajwa at Qadian in Gurdaspur, to protest against the latter’s collusion with the drug mafia as well as his involvement with terrorists and fake currency and call girl racketeers.The demonstrations also supported the bold stand taken by the SAD-BJP government and the Punjab Police to unmask the drug smugglers as well as their collaborators and urged the government to continue with its campaign to bring the guilty to book.While demanding the immediate resignation of the PCC President, the YAD leaders also appreciated the fight undertaken by YAD President and Revenue minister Bikram Majithia to come to the aid of the landless villagers whose lands were fraudulently usurped by Partap Bajwa.The youth activists demanded Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi should break his silence on the letter written by former chief minister Capt Amarinder Singh to the All India Congress Committee detailing all the “nefarious activities” of the PCC chief. “The disclosures should be investigated and Partap Bajwa should be brought to book immediately” the workers and leaders of the YAD said in one voice while asking Rahul whether he wanted a person (Bajwa) with such a shady past to continue running the Punjab Congress.
At Amritsar, Quadian, home turf of PPCC President, Ludhiana, Jalandhar, Bathinda, Patiala and Rupnagar there were tumultuous scenes with enthusiastic YAD workers asserting they would not allow any attempt by the Punjab Congress to scuttle the ongoing drug investigation against drug lord Jagdish Bhola and urged the State government to investigate the Bhola – Bajwa nexus and take the case to its logical end.The YAD activists including senior leaders Inderbir Singh Bolaria, Amarpal Singh Boni and Manjit Singh Manna along with cabinet minister Gulzar Singh Ranike said the recent disclosures were based on a letter written by none other than a former chief minister who had been entrusted with the responsibility of steering the Punjab Congress in Punjab for 13 years by the Congress high command. “Rahul should take note of the fact that the allegations against Partap Bajwa, which were based on well documented facts, had come from within the party. It is therefore his bounden duty to come clean on the disclosures”, they added.
At Ludhiana, Cabinet Minister Sharanjit Singh Dhillon and former Minister Hira Singh Gabria, YAD leaders led by Manpreet Singh Aiyali, Yadwinder Singh Yadu and Tanvir Singh Dhaliwal said leave alone the people of the State even Congressmen in Punjab were asking what Rahul was doing to send a clear signal that the Congress should not stand alongside the drug mafia. Demanding that Rahul should ask the UPA government to launch criminal proceedings against Bajwa, they said “If Rahul fails to do this the people of Punjab will realize that he makes statements for public consumption only and is not interested in pursuing the Bajwa – Bhola nexus”.
Speaking about the PCC President’s links with dreaded drug lord Jagdish Bhola, the leaders said this link was not new but had its genesis in a 2001 case when Bhola was caught with a truck load of poppy husk. They said immediately after the Congress government came into power in 2002 and Bajwa took over as a minister he worked to change the mode of inquiry and even succeeding in exonerating Bhola in the case. “This despite the facts that other peddlers caught alongwith Bhola were handed out prison terms”, they added. The YAD leaders said Bajwa had followed the same modus operandi when he had demanded a CBI inquiry into allegations leveled by Bhola. “The purpose was the same. Bajwa wanted the inquiry delayed and off tracked and this is why he demanded a CBI probe into the case”. The leaders said the Punjab Congress President also wanted to save his own skin as his past association with Bhola was a well documented fact. “Bajwa was planning to derail the probe by manipulating the investigation in case it was handed over to the CBI which is already increasingly being referred to as the Congress Bureau of Investigation”, they added.
A dharna was also held in front of the PCC President’s house in Qadian in Gurdaspur district. Speakers in the dharna alleged the Pratap Singh Bajwa family was in the business of smuggling arms and ammunitions and drugs since independence and that his father Satnam Singh Bajwa was killed in an inter gang war which was wrongly projected as a militant killing by the family later. They said Pratap Singh Bajwa and his brother Fateh Jung Singh Bajwa inherited the “family profession” and were carrying on this profession and even furthering it by using the name of the Congress party.MLA Deep Malhotra, PRTC Chairman Avtar Singh Brar and YAD leaders including Parmbans Singh Banti Romana and Harjit Singh while leading a dharna at Faridkot demanded an independent inquiry into the allegations which had surfaced regarding Pratap Singh Bajwa’s acts of omission and commission during his ministership including being part of a call girl racket in Gujarat, active support and collusion with the drug mafia and land grabs. The leaders said this would give a clear signal that the Congress high command was serious about culling the black sheep who were giving a bad name to the party.
Cabinet Minister Janmeja Singh Sekhon, MLA Joginder Singh Jindu and YAD leaders including , Rohit Vohara, and Avtar Singh Minna while calling upon people to expose the Congress party at a massive dharna at Ferozepur said the PCC President was trying to destroy Punjab by encouraging drug smuggling. They said they would however not allow the Congress conspiracy to succeed. They said Punjab Deputy Chief Minister Mr. Sukhbir Singh Badal had launched a special campaign against drug smuggling and that 28,536 drug peddlers had been arrested and 24,874 cases had been registered against them by the Punjab Police during the last two years. They said in direct contrast only 19,501 persons had been arrested in drug related crimes during the five year rule of the earlier Congress regime. “This means we have seized fifteen times more drugs per year on an average”, they added.