Chandigarh, January 1
Leader of the Opposition in the Punjab Vidhan Sabha, Partap Singh Bajwa, today strongly condemned the FIRs slapped on RTI activist Manik Goyal, journalist Minto Gursaria and Manindejit Sidhu for asking legitimate questions on government helicopter usage during the Chief Minister’s absence.
Bajwa said these FIRs expose AAP’s real face. “This is not ‘alternative politics’. This is the coercive politics of intimidation—using police, FIRs and fear to silence questions instead of answering them. It is indistinguishable from the very BJP-style playbook,” he said.
Explaining the grave danger of criminalising questions and managing narratives through fear, Bajwa recalled the chilling example of Rwanda. In 1994, Radio Télévision Libre des Mille Collines (commonly known as Radio Rwanda/RTLM) was used as a propaganda weapon—spreading lies, demonising dissent, and inciting hatred. “When power uses media and the state machinery to brand critics as enemies and suppress facts, society is pushed down a dark and irreversible path,” Bajwa warned.
Bajwa contrasted this with India’s democratic safeguards. “The Right to Information was enacted by the UPA government lead by Manmohan Singh to make democracy more transparent, to empower citizens, and to ensure governments answer to the people. RTI was designed to replace secrecy with accountability. Today, AAP is diluting the very constitutional rights it once swore to protect—turning questions into offences and transparency into a crime.”
Bajwa launched a scathing attack on AAP’s leadership and its propaganda model. “History teaches us that authoritarian leaders rely on fear and propaganda. Adolf Hitler did not rule by truth, but by intimidation and narrative control, perfected by his propaganda chief Joseph Goebbels. When today’s rulers unleash FIRs on journalists and choreograph media management to drown out facts, the comparison becomes unavoidable,” he said.
Calling out Punjab’s top leadership, Bajwa asked: “Is this the ‘Badlaav’ promised by Arvind Kejriwal? Is this governance under Bhagwant Mann—a regime where dissent is policed and propaganda replaces accountability?”
Bajwa demanded the immediate withdrawal of all FIRs, complete disclosure of helicopter and aircraft usage, and firm guarantees that journalists, RTI activists and whistleblowers will not be harassed for doing their constitutional duty. “Democracy survives on questions, not fear. Punjab will not accept rule by intimidation dressed up as reform,” Bajwa asserted.
Meanwhile, Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee (PPCC) President Amarinder Singh Raja Warring in a post on X wrote, “The registration of FIRs against RTI activist Manik Goyal, journalist Mintu Gursaria, Manindejit Sidhu, Lok Awaz TV and others for questioning Punjab Government— led by Aam Aadmi Party, which once urged Punjabis to hold them accountable — is highly condemnable. They seem to have forgotten: Punjabis can’t be silenced.”
