Anti-AAP slogans filled the air at Moosa village in Punjab’s Mansa district where thousands had gathered to pay their last respects to singer-politician Sidhu Moosewala, who was laid to rest at his native village after being shot dead in broad daylight on Sunday.
No leader of the ruling Aam Aadmi Party was present at the funeral of the slain Congress leader, which was held amid tight security.
The firestorm over the blatant killing of Moosewala is the third major episode in Punjab, where the Aam Aadmi Party had stormed to power with a thumping majority. The back-to-back incidents have led its opponents to question the two-month-old Bhagwant Mann-led Punjab government on its claims of delivering governance and maintaining law and order.
The incident virtually marks the end of Mann government’s honeymoon period as it faces a dual attack from the opposition and Moosewala’s family and fans with questions over the withdrawal of the singer’s security cover. Punjab DGP V K Bhawra’s claim that the killing was a result of inter-gang rivalry has also shifted the spotlight once again on the volatile law and order situation in the border state.
The reported involvement of gangsters Goldy Brar and Lawrence Bishnoi, and the police suspecting the killing to be a revenge of Youth Akali leader Vikramjit alias Vicky Middukhera’s murder in August 2021 once again raises apprehension of gangs reviving in the state, where border security has always been a concern.
Moosewala’s killing comes a month after violence erupted in Patiala between workers of Shiv Sena and alleged pro-Khalistan activists. Just weeks ago, a rocket-propelled grenade attack on the state police state headquarters in Mohali shook the entire state.
Adding to AAP’s wounds, Chief Minister Mann announced the sacking of of Health minister Vijay Singla from the state cabinet over corruption charges. Singla was later arrested and sent to judicial custody. While the party did take a moral high ground since it was Mann who initiated action against his own minister, the events that transpired later in Delhi dented the AAP’s anti-corruption claims heavily. On Monday, the Enforcement Directorate arrested Delhi Health minister Satyendar Jain in connection with a money laundering case. He has now been remanded to ED custody for 10 days till June 9.
Zero-tolerance against corruption has been the AAP’s hallmark in every poll campaign and the graft charges against cabinet ministers in both the states ruled by the party have only allowed the Opposition to question its claims of honesty.
“When AAP’s corruption is caught, they say their corruption is good… ‘You see our corruption, Delhi is benefitted from it’. However, it is important to remind Arvind Kejriwal that before the recently concluded Punjab assembly elections, he had given a statement and had also tweeted through AAP’s official handle that ‘Modi govt is planning to arrest our Minister Satyendar Jain’. In the end, he wrote, ‘We won’t cry like Channi’,” BJP spokesperson Gaurav Bhatia said.
After AAP stormed to power in Punjab with a landslide victory, Mann’s appointment as the chief minister was criticised by the opposition, which alleged that the government will be remote-controlled by Arvind Kejriwal from Delhi. Soon after the AAP formed government in Punjab, Kejriwal held a meeting with state’s officers in the absence of Mann, which had also resulted in controversy.