Chandigarh, April 24
Asserting that the Punjab Congress will take the fight against the gangsters to a logical conclusion, the PCC president Amarinder Singh Raja Warring today said that “gangster free Punjab” will be the top most priority of his party. He congratulated the Punjabis for raising their voice against the web series on dreaded gangster Lawrence Bishnoi, the ‘Lawrence of Punjab’, which eventually led the government of India banning its release.
Warring personally led an aggressive campaign against the release of the web series, warning against glorifying a dreaded criminal and gangster who is responsible for killing so many people. Addressing a press conference along with the PCC general secretary organisation Capt Sandeep Sandhu, former MLA Harminder Gill and advocate Nikhil Ghai, the PCC president held the ruling Aam Aadmi Party responsible for the rise of gangster culture in the state. “The AAP has achieved the dubious distinction of letting the gangster culture grow in the state”, he said, adding, there was an atmosphere of fear across Punjab. He said, the way the gangsters were resorting to killing people, nobody was feeling secure in the state.
Expressing relief over the ban by the union government on the release of the web series, he lashed out at the Bharatiya Janata Party for trying to claim credit for the ban. He asked, why was the web series allowed to be made? He pointed out, it was only after his sustained campaign seeking ban on the web series, serving legal notice, filing a Public Interest Litigation and writing to the Prime Minister that led to the ban on the release of the web series.
Warring said, it was the first step in a fight that is going to be long drawn. He expressed grave concern over the dangerous gangster culture that is spreading in Punjab with vulnerable people being targeted. Ridiculing the BJP’s attempts to claim credit for the ban, he pointed out, it was the BJP government in Gujarat that was protecting and patronizing Bishnoi. He noted that the Gujarat government has made special law that Bishnoi cannot be taken out of Gujarat on the production warrant even if he is involved in heinous crimes outside.
“Why such a special treatment to such a dreaded gangster who not only killed the famous and most popular Punjabi singer, but is also responsible for killing hundreds of other innocent people?” Warring asked the BJP. He said, if the BJP was really so sincere why it did not provide security to Sidhu Moosewala after the AAP government in Punjab withdrew his security despite a serious threat perception. If they could provide Z category security to Raghav Chadha immediately after it was withdrawn from him by the Punjab government, why did the centre not provide security to Moosewala? he asked.
Pointing out how the BJP government at the centre had provided huge security paraphernalia to even ordinary workers without any threat perception in Punjab, he told the BJP leadership that Punjab cannot be secured or won over by merely providing posse of central security forces to its party cadres in the state.
