The Punjab unit of the BJP on Saturday reacted to CM Charanjit Singh Channi’s statement that the state had no prior information of Prime Minister Narendra Modi taking the road route to reach his Ferozepur rally venue and stated that a 32-page Advance Security Liasoning (ASL) report had been sent to the government on January 3 itself — two days before PM’s rally — in which it was indicated that the PM might travel via road too.
Ashwani Sharma, president of BJP’s Punjab unit, said, “The SC probe will reveal everything as all the records have been seized. We trust the SC to conduct a free and fair probe. Rahul Gandhi is mum over the episode while Priyanka is sending out baseless tweets. The probe will unmask everyone connected to the entire episode.”
He added that it was really sad that the Punjab CM had given a statement that the administration had no prior information of the PM’s road travel. “An ASL report was submitted on January 3, wherein it was mentioned on page 23 that in case of inclement weather road journey can also take place. Hence, the road should be cleared and no vehicle be allowed to be parked in the vicinity. Instead, the administration let a group of people sit on a dharna on the road,” Sharma said.
He alleged that the flyover was closed for the general public by Punjab Police 50 minutes before the arrival of the PM’s motorcade. “The police themselves got some protesters along who started a dharna at the flyover. Some of the buses hired by us got stuck on the flyover as protesters blocked the way. A confrontation between BJP workers and a handful of protesters was about to happen when the PM’s motorcade arrived. This just shows how lax the Punjab government was towards providing security to the PM of the country,” Sharma said.
Prodded about a couple of viral videos where BJP supporters, party flags in hand, are spotted raising slogans in favour of Modi near the PM’s motorcade, Sharma said that these were workers whose buses had got stuck on the flyover due to the dharna by protesters.
Other BJP leaders, on condition of anonymity, added that in the ASl handed over to the Punjab government it had been indicated that the PM had grave threats to his life from Pakistan-based militant organisations like Hizbul Mujahideen, Lashkar-e-Taiba, and Jaish-e-Mohammed. “In Ferozepur’s Namak Mandi, one IED blast had taken place on September 5 last year. Ten days later, a second blast had taken place in Jalalabad. A tiffin bomb was recovered from Saideke village of Ferozepur on November 3 in which Pakistan’s involvement was found. The ASL report had also indicated that some sort of protest cannot be ruled out in the Hussainiwala area, where the base of farmers was very strong. Hence, the statements of the Punjab CM are baseless,” one BJP leader said.
Sharma added, “This isn’t about the BJP. This is about the security of the PM of this country and there was a conspiracy behind this episode. It was a relief that the PM came out safe and sound due to the prayers of crores of people. The Congress should not forget that because of security lapses, the country had already lost two of its PMs in the past.”
BJP leaders concluded that now that the code of conduct has been implemented in the state, the election commission should focus on conducting free and fair elections in the state.