Chandigarh, November 6
Former State President of the Bharatiya Janata Party and former Union Minister Vijay Sampla stated that the AAP-led Punjab Government’s double standards regarding central investigative agencies have been thoroughly exposed. He pointed out that whenever the Enforcement Directorate (ED) conducts raids concerning corruption cases in Punjab, AAP leaders stage protests and demonstrations in opposition; however, when it comes to their political opponents, the very same government itself writes letters urging the ED to step in and investigate.
In a press statement issued from the party office in Chandigarh, Vijay Sampla noted that after the Punjab Vigilance Bureau presented a 40,000-page chargesheet against Bikram Singh Majithia in a disproportionate assets case, the Punjab Government’s subsequent letter urging the ED to register an FIR and initiate an investigation raises serious questions. He said that on one hand, the party vehemently opposes the ED’s actions by labelling them political vendetta, while on the other, it actively seeks an investigation from that exact agency to suit its political convenience.
Confronting Finance Minister Harpal Singh Cheema and the AAP leadership—who had created an outcry following the ED raid at the residence of AAP MLA Dr. Amandeep Kaur Arora in Moga—Vijay Sampla questioned why the Vigilance Bureau was writing letters to the ED in the Majithia case if the agency’s investigations were genuinely biased.
Sampla further recalled that when the ED repeatedly wrote letters asking Punjab Police to register an FIR regarding alleged corruption against the Chief Minister’s OSD Rajveer Ghuman and his associates, the AAP government dismissed the CBI and ED proceedings as BJP-driven political vendetta. He asked what intent the state government now harbours by unilaterally writing to the ED seeking a probe in Bikram Majithia’s case. Undoubtedly, he concluded, this brazenly puts the party’s hypocritical character on full display.
