Chandigarh, January 16
Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) Punjab State Media In-charge Baltej Pannu on Friday said that Union Minister Ravneet Singh Bittu has himself exposed the truth behind SAD-BJP’s rule from 2007-17, then failed Congress government of 2017-22 and now some of BJP’s leaders’ desperation for an alliance with the Badals by admitting that drugs and gangsterism would return to Punjab if such an alliance takes place.
Addressing a press conference, Baltej Pannu said that Bittu has raised extremely serious questions by publicly stating that an alliance with the Badals would mean a return of “chitta” (synthetic drugs) and gangsterism in Punjab. “These are not ordinary political statements. These are confessions that clearly establish who destroyed Punjab between 2007 and 2017,” Pannu said.
Pannu asked Ravneet Bittu to answer one simple question: if he knows that the Badals were responsible for pushing Punjab into drugs and gangster violence, then why are some BJP leaders in Punjab aggressively advocating an alliance with them?
“BJP Punjab today is led by former Congress President Sunil Jakhar, while former Congress Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh is a senior BJP leader. Both of them openly argue that BJP cannot survive in Punjab without aligning with Badal,” Pannu said. “Does this mean they do not know who spread drugs and nurtured gangsterism in Punjab, or do they simply choose to ignore it for political convenience?”
Pannu reminded that during the Akali-BJP rule from 2007 to 2017, Punjab witnessed the peak of drug trafficking and gangster culture. “This was the period when Punjab first heard the word chitta on such a massive scale, when a powerful Akali leader’s (Bikram Majithia) name surfaced in a drug trafficking case, when Nabha jail was broken, when a police ASI was killed in Amritsar while protecting his daughter, when a policeman’s leg was broken in Ludhiana, and when a minor girl was abducted in Faridkot by gangsters,” he said.
Pannu further questioned Bittu’s silence during the Congress rule from 2017 to 2022, when Bittu was a sitting MP. “If you knew then who was responsible for drugs and gangsterism, did you ever demand action against the Badals? Did Captain Amarinder Singh or Charanjit Singh Channi take any decisive action? The truth is that Congress, BJP and Akalis were running a partnership government, shielding each other,” he said.
Pannu said, “Ravneet Bittu should stop asking rhetorical questions and instead seek answers from his own party leadership, Sunil Jakhar and Captain Amarinder Singh, who are the biggest advocates of an alliance with the Badals. Punjab’s people are watching closely and will not allow the return of those who ruined the state.”
