Punjab Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) chief and cabinet minister Aman Arora said on Monday that while he humbly accepts the Punjab and Haryana high court’s order directing a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probe into allegations forwarded by the Enforcement Directorate (ED), the state has little hope of receiving impartial justice from central agencies.
Taking a swipe at the Congress over reported internal dissatisfaction regarding leadership appointments, Arora suggested that the party mismanaged its structural decisions: “The Congress would have fared better had former Sangrur MLA Vijay Inder Singla been named state president. Addressing a press conference, Dhillon demanded chief minister Bhagwant Mann’s resignation, claiming that the government had lost the moral right to remain in power. Referring to recent suicides and violent incidents, Arora assured the public that the state government will neither engage in nor tolerate illegal acts. With the AAP state chief from Sangrur and key BJP figures like Kewal Singh Dhillon based in Barnala, strong, aligned leadership across the Malwa belt is essential. The Congress leadership’s decision to overlook Singla amounts to a betrayal and injustice toward Malwa. Expressing hope that the CBI will conduct a fair and transparent investigation, Dhillon questioned that if the government considered itself truly honest, why did it run away from an investigation despite repeated letters from the ED, and why was the chief minister afraid of an investigation into his own office?
Addressing a press conference in Sangrur, Arora said, “Though the decision regarding shifting of cases to CBI is a judicial matter and we humbly accept the decision, there is no hope of justice from agencies like the CBI or ED. On internal friction arising from public concerns raised by AAP’s Maur MLA Sukhveer Singh Maiserkhana regarding governance and local school infrastructure, Arora said that the lawmaker ought to have raised his issues within party forums first. He said chief minister Bhagwant Mann and education minister Harjot Singh Bains would investigate the matter and take appropriate action. Welcoming the high court decision, Punjab Bharatiya Janata Party chief Kewal Singh Dhillon said it had “exposed the reality” of a government that claimed to have zero tolerance for corruption.
