HOURS after Enforcement Directorate (ED) arrested Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi’s nephew Bhupinder Singh alias Honey on money laundering charges, the Congress Friday hit out at the BJP-led central government alleging that it was taking revenge from the people of Punjab for supporting the farmers’ agitation.
The party also remained unfazed as it prepares to announce its chief ministerial candidate for Punjab, which goes to polls on February 20, during a virtual rally on Sunday to be addressed by Rahul Gandhi in Ludhiana. Sources within the Congress indicate that the party is likely to declare Channi as the CM candidate.
Meanwhile, Channi said that the illegal sand mining case in which his nephew has been arrested was being unnecessarily linked to him.
“The matter is now in the court. We will accept whatever the court decides. But it is unnecessarily being linked to me,” Channi said.
He added, “Take action, I have no problem. Take action from whoever cash has been recovered. Raids took place when I was to file nominations. Now, when the party has to announce the CM candidate, then arrest has taken place. After this, they will try to nail me till the election. They are all together. They are trying to implicate me,” he said hitting out at the Centre.
Congress spokesperson Randeep Surjewala came to Channi’s defense saying that the people of the state will not be cowed down by these tactics and have already made up their mind about re-electing Congress government in Punjab.
“BJP’s political ‘nautanki’ (gimmicks) in Punjab has started. Its ‘Election Department’, known as Enforcement Directorate, has come on the field and an onslaught on Punjab and Punjabis has been launched for supporting the farmers’ agitation,” Surjewala told reporters.
“This is not an attack on Channi but on all those Punjabis who extended their support to farmers, farm labourers and the poor,” he added.
The senior Congress leader alleged that Channi’s relative was being embroiled in a six-year-old case and Punjab party chief Navjot Singh Sidhu is being dragged in a 33-year-old case. “This is a tactic to divert attention by the BJP, which is not even winning one seat in Punjab. It has come into the fray to help its ‘B-team’ of Arvind Kejriwal,” he alleged.
AICC secretary Harish Chaudhary said that the ED raids and arrest were reminiscent of raids on Mamata Banerjee and MK Stalin ahead of elections in their states. Addressing media, he said the ED had not issued any official statement on the recovery of Rs 10 crore. He said People of Punjab will give a reply to all this.
He also sought to distance Channi from Honey saying that the latter was neither the son of CM’s brother nor his sister. “Then how come he is his nephew,” Chaudhary asked.
Senior party leader and Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge termed Honey’s arrest as “political” and said, “If they had to take action, they could have done it over last few months. It is being done now on purpose to create pressure. They want to demoralise Channi as he represents the Scheduled Caste community”.
“The BJP cannot tolerate that a person from among the SCs has become a chief minister,” Kharge alleged, saying it is being done to damage Channi politically.
Congress spokesperson Supriya Shrinate alleged that every time there is an election and a democratically-elected government has to be toppled, the Modi government resorts to using central agencies like the Enforcement Directorate.
She said that though the BJP has 17 governments elected across the country, not one Dalit leads their government and that is why they are targeting Channi, a Dalit.
Meanwhile, the Congress camp remained gung ho about Rahul Gandhi’s virtual rally.
A party leader said the raids and the recovery was not sticking to Channi.
“There is no direct link that has come out. Who cares about these raids and arrest,” the leader asked.