Congress leader Sukhpal Singh Khaira also posted the same video on ‘X’, saying that it proved that the AAP leaders were “fake” revolutionaries.
🛑ਮੁੱਖ ਮੰਤਰੀ ਭਗਵੰਤ ਮਾਨ ਦੇ ਸ੍ਰੀ ਆਨੰਦਪੁਰ ਸਾਹਿਬ ਵਿਚ ਰੋਡ ਸ਼ੋਅ ਦੌਰਾਨ ਵਿਰੋਧ ਕਰਨ ਵਾਲੇ ਵਿਅਕਤੀ ਨੂੰ ਪੁਲਿਸ ਵਾਲੇ ਧੂਹ ਕੇ ਲੈ ਗਏ ਤੇ ਕਾਫੀ ਕੁੱਟਮਾਰ ਕੀਤੀ।
👉ਇਹ ਹੈ ਬਦਲਾਅ। ਰੱਜ ਕੇ ਕਰਦੇ ਹਨ ਭ੍ਰਿਸ਼ਟਾਚਾਰ।
👉ਹਰਜੋਤ ਬੈਂਸ ਨੇ ਨਜਾਇਜ਼ ਮਾਇਨਿੰਗ ਨਾਲ ਮਚਾਈ ਹੈ ਲੁੱਟ। ਜਦੋਂ ਲੋਕ ਕਰਦੇ ਹਨ ਵਿਰੋਧ ਤਾਂ ਫਿਰ ਕਰਦੇ ਹਨ ਕੁੱਟਮਾਰ।… pic.twitter.com/kmmsun5fo1— Bikram Singh Majithia (@bsmajithia) May 5, 2024
“Plz watch below how the true Aam Aadmi is being brutally beaten by police merely for trying to raise some issue before @BhagwantMann during his roadshow yesterday in Anandpur Sahib. This only shows @ArvindKejriwal & Co are fraud & fake revolutionaries blatantly breaking their own rules and ideology,” Khaira said.
Plz watch below how the true Aam Aadmi is being brutally beaten by police merely for trying to raise some issue before @BhagwantMann during his roadshow yesterday in Anandpur Sahib. This only shows @ArvindKejriwal & Co are fraud & fake revolutionaries blatantly breaking their own… pic.twitter.com/lrUT3nnKpo
— Sukhpal Singh Khaira (@SukhpalKhaira) May 5, 2024
The incident in the video, which was posted Sunday, is of 29 April when Mann was campaigning for Anandpur Sahib candidate Malvinder Singh Kang.
The AAP has faced mounting criticism since 13 April, when transport minister Laljit Singh Bhullar made casteist remarks, leading to widespread condemnation.
Bhullar, who claimed that he belongs to the “topmost” Jat community, had said that a former Congress leader of Khadoor Sahib had been washing the clothes of members of the lower community when he was lodged in the Jodhpur jail in the 1980s.
After a strong protest by these communities, Bhullar issued an apology, but the damage had been done. Meanwhile, on 27 April, CM Mann also apologised on Bhullar’s behalf, saying that he has warned Bhullar never to repeat the mistake.
However, the controversy has persisted, with protests against Bhullar continuing, including the burning of his effigy by the Ramgarhia community Thursday, which also demanded an FIR against him.
Similarly, agriculture minister Gurmeet Singh Khudian, the candidate from Bathinda, and his son Amit faced farmer protests over compensation issues. On 12 April, in Bathinda, Amit found himself encircled by protesting farmers who confronted him regarding the lack of adequate compensation for crop damages they had suffered.
Protests continued through the week, the latest reported on 29 April at village Balianwali in Bathinda. Amid this, Khudian has clarified that the farmers’ protests are directed at all political contenders, not solely at him.
Khudian, who previously defeated six-time Punjab Chief Minister Prakash Singh Badal in the 2022 assembly elections, is now contesting against Badal’s daughter-in-law and three-time MP from Bathinda, Harsimrat Kaur Badal.
The other AAP leaders that faced public ire include, Gurpreet Singh G.P, the AAP’s nominee for Fatehgarh Sahib, who was met with demonstrations by villagers brandishing black flags in Dharamgarh, Amloh, on 22 April.
Additionally, Anmol Gagan Maan, the MLA from Kharar, though not a candidate, encountered farmer discontent on 21 April, as they displayed black flags and questioned her over her promise to ensure a guaranteed minimum support price within “five minutes” of assuming power.
The people’s discontent also extended to the AAP’s newcomer, actor-turned-politician Karamjit Anmol. On 27 April in Faridkot, he was confronted by farmers demanding explanations for the delay in the procurement of agricultural produce at the local markets.
According to Prof. Harjeshwar Singh, department of history, SGGS College, Sector 26 Chandigarh, there are many reasons why the AAP is being opposed by common people in Punjab.
“These include non-fulfillment of promises like Rs 1,000 pension to women; failure to curb drug menace and corruption; non-payment of compensation for damaged crops due to floods; non-performance of MLAs; discontentment of AAP cadre due to the party inducting turncoats and an overall assertiveness of society due to the influence of Kisan Andolan,” Singh highlighted.
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Anti-incumbency sentiments
The AAP government, which has been in power for just over two years, is experiencing anti-incumbency sentiments, with villagers expressing dissatisfaction over the absence of AAP leaders after the assembly elections. Several of them also expressed their unhappiness over their Atta Dal Scheme cards being deleted.
The Atta Dal Scheme, which promised to provide 30kg wheat per person at Rs 2, was started by the Akali Dal government but was replaced by the Mann government with the Ghar Ghar ration scheme last year, where beneficiaries under the National Food Security Act would get wheat or ‘atta’ (wheat flour) in bags at their doorsteps.
On 25 April, an AAP candidate from Hoshiarpur, Raj Kumar Chabbewal, faced public outrage during an election meeting. In a video of the incident that went viral on the social media, villagers are heard telling Chabbewal, a former Congress MLA who joined AAP in March, that he had not bothered to visit the village even once in the past two years.
“There is a huge problem of law and order emerging in Punjab, especially for the traders, and the government is not doing anything about it,” said a chemist in Phagwara, recalling that two shopkeepers were shot dead in January and September last year.
Meanwhile, the women of Simbli village, also in Hoshiarpur, expressed their disappointment with the Mann administration for not delivering on the pledge to provide a monthly stipend of Rs 1,000 to each woman in the state.
“What happened to that promise? No AAP candidate has come to us, otherwise one would have asked him this question,” a woman told ThePrint.
Amid these concerns, the impact of the free power scheme of the Mann government is also fading. “There is a flaw in the scheme. The first 300 units are free, however, if you consume even a single unit above 300, you have to pay the entire bill,” said Mukhtiar Singh, a resident of Lakhnaur village in the Anandpur Sahib constituency.
Villagers here also talk about the rampant availability of drugs in the village. Pointing towards a group of youngsters on motorcycles, an elderly remarked that they were waiting for their delivery.
“Everyone in the pool village, including the police, knows who is delivering drugs but no permanent solution is found. Even when these drug peddlers are picked up by the police, they are let off within a day, as the police take money from them,” he alleged.
Trouble for AAP candidates likely to swell
While the list of public concerns is long, trouble for the AAP candidates is only likely to swell in the coming days with farmer organisations announcing protests against them.
On Friday, Joginder Singh Ugrahan, who leads Punjab’s largest farmer group, Bharatiya Kisan Union (BKU) Ugrahan, announcing that farmers will hold both BJP leaders and AAP candidates accountable.
“The biggest problem that the farmers are facing is the non-payment of compensation for damaged crops. The district administration is holding on to the compensation on the ground that the Model Code of Conduct (MCC) is in place. This is nothing but an excuse because the process of applying for the compensation and its passing had already been completed before the code was put in place,” said Ugrahan.
In a separate development, the Samyukta Kisan Morcha disclosed Wednesday that they are preparing a set of questions for the AAP candidates and leaders out for campaigning in villages, in addition to the 11 queries already aimed at BJP representatives.
“The ruling party also made several promises, which it has not met as far as farmers are concerned. They are to be held accountable,” said farmer leader Balbir Singh Rajewal addressing the press conference in Chandigarh.
Meanwhile, several BJP candidates have also been surrounded and heckled by farmers over the past month, who are not allowing these candidates to even enter their villages. On Saturday, a 60-year-old farmer, Surinderpal Singh, died during a protest by members of the Bhartiya Kisan Union (Sidhupur) against BJP candidate Praneet Kaur in Patiala.
The farmer union leaders have asked their activists to question the BJP leaders about the death of a young farmer, Shubhkaran, who allegedly died in the police action during the second round of protest at the Shambhu border held in February and why farmers were not allowed to go to Delhi.
(Edited by Richa Mishra)
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