The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on Sunday launched statewide protests against the BJP-led Central Government, asserting that the BJP is misusing central agencies like the Enforcement Directorate (ED), CBI and Income Tax Department to target opposition leaders and destabilize non-BJP governments.
AAP leaders and karyakartas staged demonstrations and gheraoed BJP offices at district headquarters across Punjab, raising slogans against Narendra Modi and the BJP government over the ED action against Cabinet Minister Sanjeev Arora.
The protests were held in districts including Hoshiarpur, Patiala, Mohali and several other parts of Punjab, where AAP leaders noted that the BJP was using investigative agencies as political weapons to intimidate elected governments and silence opposition voices.
Protesters carried placards, shouted slogans against the Modi government and accused the BJP of attempting to crush every political force that refuses to bow before it. In Hoshiarpur, AAP leaders burnt an effigy of PM Modi and declared the BJP’s actions “dictatorial and anti-democratic attacks” on opposition parties.
Party karyakartas asserted that the BJP was trying to spread fear through raids and coercive action, but Punjab would not surrender before such tactics. Senior AAP leader and Minister Harpal Singh Cheema said, “The BJP has turned agencies like ED, CBI and Income Tax into political weapons.
Whenever the BJP faces political defeat or resistance, it unleashes central agencies on opposition leaders. Bengal was targeted first and now Punjab is being attacked because the BJP cannot digest the growing popularity of AAP and the pro-people work being done by the Bhagwant Mann government.”Harpal Singh Cheema asserted, “The BJP is trying to weaken democratically elected governments through intimidation because it could not defeat them politically.
Punjab’s people were watching how constitutional institutions were being misused for vendetta politics.”In Patiala, Cabinet Minister Dr. Balbir Singh led the protest march and strongly criticized the BJP for indulging in “politics of fear and intimidation.”
Similar demonstrations were held in Mohali and other districts, where AAP karyakartas gathered outside BJP offices and condemned the action against Sanjeev Arora as politically motivated. Addressing the protesters, Dr. Balbir Singh said, “The BJP’s politics revolves around threats, raids and coercion.
They first pressured Punjab’s Rajya Sabha MPs and later targeted Cabinet Ministers when AAP refused to surrender before the Centre. They thought Punjab could be bullied through ED, CBI and Income Tax raids. But Punjabis have a history of standing against oppression and they will give a befitting reply to the BJP.”
Dr. Balbir Singh further said, “Why did raids against Rajya Sabha MP Ashok Mittal stop after he joined the BJP? This exposes the real face of the BJP. Agencies become active only against those who oppose them politically. The moment someone joins BJP, all investigations disappear.”
AAP leaders affirmed that the people of Punjab would not tolerate the misuse of constitutional institutions for political revenge. The party warned the BJP-led Centre that attempts to destabilize Punjab through intimidation and vendetta politics would fail, adding that AAP volunteers would continue to raise their voice on the streets against what they described as the “murder of democracy” by the Modi government.