The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) burnt the effigies of Congress minister Sadhu Singh Dharamsot in a statewide protest demanding his arrest in the case of withholding the roll numbers of nearly two lakh students of the state due to usurpation of scholarship money of the Dalit students by the Punjab Congress government. In a statement issued on Saturday, AAP’s senior leader and Leader of Opposition (LoP) in the Punjab Assembly, Harpal Singh Cheema and Deputy Leader of Opposition Saravjit Kaur Manuke, said that the ruling Congress government and the previous SAD-BJP government had always looted and harassed the Dalits. They said that these parties had always discriminated against the children of Dalits and robbed them of the money reserved for them. The AAP leaders said that the Punjab government had a budget of Rs 800 crore every year for the welfare of Dalit children for public display but in reality this money was squandered by the ministers and the officials.The AAP leaders said that Captain Amarinder Singh had nothing to do with any work of the state and he had gone into hiding by stabbing the Punjabis in the back. “The people of Punjab are looking for ‘Gumshuda Captain'.
Captain is making big announcements for the Dalits from an undisclosed location while the Dalits of Punjab are facing serious challenges on the ground,” they added. The leaders said that the Captain government used to repeatedly give statements on releasing the scholarship money, but in reality nothing was happening; which was causing embarrassment to the Dalit students. They said that in the present circumstances, it was impossible for Dalit students to get any kind of justice without the arrest of minister Dharamsot.They said that Captain Amarinder Singh had made many promises to the Dalits before the elections and also claimed to provide free education to the Dalit children, but after the formation of the government; he reneged on his promises which forced Dalit children to struggle. The AAP leaders said that Dalit children had also been deprived of the privileges given to them by Baba Sahib Bhim Rao Ambedkar through the Constitution. “The Narendra Modi-led central government and Captain Amarinder Singh's government in Punjab have jointly usurped the money of Dalit children which is making it difficult for them to pursue higher education,” said the leaders. They said that even during the last Badal government, there was a scam in the funds coming under the post-matric scheme for Dalit children due to which even then Dalit children were being deprived of their education.