Chandigarh, January 8
In a strong political message, AAP National Convenor Arvind Kejriwal and Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Singh Mann met newly elected Zila Parishad and Block Samiti members and asserted that Punjab has decisively broken away from the era of fear, goondagardi and manipulated elections, while announcing that the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government will now launch a full-scale war against gangsters on the lines of the ‘Yudh Nashean Virudh’.
Citing AAP’s sweeping victory of over 70 per cent seats in the Panchayat polls as a mandate for clean politics and honest governance, the AAP Chief said Punjab had witnessed the cleanest local body elections in its history, with not even a single vote shifted, while CM Bhagwant Singh Mann underlined that pro-people governance had forced traditional parties to rewrite their manifestos.
On the issue related to Sri Akal Takht Sahib, Bhagwant Singh Mann said that he would certainly appear before the Takht with all facts and requested that the proceedings be telecast live on all channels. “I will appear there not as a Chief Minister, but as a humble and devout Sikh. Sri Akal Takht Sahib is sacred for every Sikh and is the highest temporal seat of our community. Even though the President of the country will be visiting Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar, I will still ensure my presence before Sri Akal Takht Sahib,” he said.
Mann unequivocally asserted that for him, Sri Akal Takht Sahib is above everything. “Any order received from there will be obeyed in true letter and spirit. The command of Sri Akal Takht Sahib was, is and will always remain supreme for me and my family. It is a highly revered place from where Sikhs derive divine peace and strength,” he said.
Listing achievements, Arvind Kejriwal said, “Big works are happening. Electricity has become free. Earlier, wherever I went during the last election, people would sit with electricity bills saying they had one small house, one fan, yet received bills of ₹10,000. Today, people are getting zero electricity bills. If this is not a miracle, then what is? Old bills have been waived.”
The AAP Head emphasised AAP’s commitment to ordinary citizens. “The AAP is the party that gives tickets to ordinary people. It is the party where an ordinary person becomes the Chief Minister. Bhagwant Singh Mann’s father was not a politician. None of his relatives were politicians. Yet he became Chief Minister. In my family too, no one was a politician, yet I became Chief Minister. More than 90 per cent of you also come from families with no political background. If you work well, you can become MLAs, ministers, purely on the basis of your work.”
Urging service over self-interest, he said, “Serve the people. God has given you this opportunity, and very few get such a chance. These opportunities exist only in the AAP. Other parties give tickets to gangsters or their relatives. We have never given tickets to our children or relatives. Only those who serve the people get tickets.”
On law and order, the AAP Chief said that after drugs, the government will launch a major campaign against gangsters. “Just like we started a war against drugs, we will start a war against gangsters as well. All gangsters and their networks in Punjab will be eliminated. We will not spare them,” he said.
Meanwhile, Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Singh Mann, said that the vision and dynamism of AAP National Convenor Arvind Kejriwal has compelled traditional political parties to rewrite their manifestos and rethink their priorities.“The politics of this country has changed because of Arvind Kejriwal. Education, health and electricity have come to the centre of political discourse only because of AAP. Before this, no political party ever bothered about these sectors, even though they matter the most to the common man,” he said.
Taking a dig at the Akali Dal, Bhagwant Singh Mann remarked that the party was struggling to find speakers for the upcoming Maghi conference at Sri Muktsar Sahib. “They do not have leaders left to address people,” he said, adding that the recent elections were conducted in a free, fair and transparent manner. “That is why the victory margins at many seats were very low. People are joining AAP in large numbers because of its pro-people policies, while several parties could not even find candidates as the public is fed up with their divisive politics,” he added.
