Former Chief Minister and Congress candidate from Amritsar Capt Amarinder Singh today asked the BJP leader Narendra Modi whether he was coming here to give his stamp of approval to Bikram Majithia’s goonda raj as he has “criminalised” politics in Amritsar.In an open letter to Modi on the eve of his visit to Amritsar, copies of which were released to the press, Capt Amarinder said, Bikram Majithia was the most notorious character across Amritsar who has been patronising drug trafficking and criminals. He said, Bikram has already been named in the multi-crore international drug racket and is likely to face prosecution soon.He also referred to the issue of Gujarat farmers saying “let me remind you of your promise about the Punjabi farmers in Gujarat, you made at Jagaraon, during your first rally in Punjab on February 23, wherein you had publicly committed, albeit vaguely, that nobody will be forced out of Gujarat”.He said, “everybody in Punjab assumed that your government will withdraw the appeal against the Gujarat High Court verdict that goes in their favour. Till now, your government has not done anything, not taken any initiative which could reveal your sincerity in meeting that commitment”.
Alleging that Bikram Majithia had criminalised politics, the Congress leader reminded Modi that it was same Majithia whose henchman Ranjit Rana, a leader of the Youth Akali Dal, the criminal brigade of Bikram Majithia, shot dead an Assistant Sub Inspector of Police in broad day light at a public place as the police officer tried to stop him from harassing his daughter.Referring to the havoc caused by the drugs, he told Modi, “let me also update you that not far from the venue of your rally is a place called Maqboolpura which is tragically called the village of widows as ninety per cent youth have died there after consuming drugs patronised and supplied by Majithia brigade”, he said in his letter.
Capt Amarinder also referred to Badals’ huge wealth. He said, Badal belonged to a humble farmer’s family with just 80 acres of land and now his properties were worth billions of rupees”.“They own at least two five star hotels in Delhi worth Rs thousand crores each, some private airliners, thousands of hectares of land across Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan, Uttrakhand, United States, Canada and several other western countries”, he said, while telling him, “it would be better to ask them the secret of their success as they have actually flourished far faster than your vibrant Gujarat”.“And while Badals’ wealth is multiplying by billions, Punjab’s debt is multiplying in same proportion. It is so strange that while the Badals are getting richer and richer, Punjab is getting poorer and poorer with the state’s debt crossing Rs one lakh crores and if other debts are taken into account, it must be more than Rs two lakh crores”, he said.
“While nobody knows the real secret of their humungous wealth, there is a general idea that they have grabbed each and everything in Punjab which they think can make them money. For example they have grabbed all the sand mining operations, the entire road transport, the liquor business, the cable distribution, just to name a few. They do not spare even a small food joint if they learn that it is doing a good business”, he said.