Punjab: BJP wants Bittu booked ‘hate speech’, plans indefinite dharna

Punjab BJP chief Ashwani Sharma said that BJP workers will also hold demonstrations at outside every district police chief's office across Punjab on Wednesday.

The BJP workers will stage an indefinite dharna in Ludhiana till the time an FIR was registered against local Congress MP Ravneet Singh Bittu for allegedly making an inflammatory statement, state party chief Ashwani Sharma Tuesday said.

Sharma said that BJP workers will also hold demonstrations at outside every district police chief’s office across Punjab on Wednesday and submit memorandums over an alleged attack on party men during events to celebrate former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s birth anniversary.

“From January 2 till the time an FIR is not registered against Ludhiana MP Ravneet Bittu, BJP will sit on agitation for an indefinite time. I will lead this agitation and every member of the party’s core group will also take part in it,” said Sharma.

BJP has been claiming that Bittu, in a media statement, had said that the ongoing farmers’ protest will not end “and to achieve our objective we can even pile up bodies, shed blood and go to any extent”.

Sharma also demanded action within seven days on the memorandum submitted by BJP delegation to DGP Monday.

A party delegation had called on DGP Dinkar Gupta Monday and demanded that appropriate sections should be included in the FIR against those who attacked BJP workers. The BJP leaders also demanded action against the such police personnel who, they alleged, some section were “acting in connivance with the disruptive forces”.

Talking about the party cadres injured in attacks on them by “Congress-sponsored attackers,” Sharma said that one woman, who had a fractured arm, had been hit by a lathi by a policeman.

“If people who are supposed to ensure that nothing untoward takes act like this, then who is dictating such actions? This question will have to be answered. At 27 places across Punjab where Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s event was being screened, Punjab Police officials entered and forced the organisers to shut the programme down. What is this? What kind of democracy is this? This happened in Mukerian, Kotkapura, Phagwara, Hoshiarpur, Abohar and many other places,” claimed Sharma.

The state BJP chief said that such conduct of the Punjab Police puts Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh in the dock. “When the DGP joined the service, he must have made some commitments towards the Constitution of the country and towards his duty. Is all this as per that? Will the CM stop a political party from holding its programmes in this manner,” he asked.

Sharma said that despite having given a detailed complaint to the police in Bathinda about the attack on BJP workers, the FIR was diluted and this proved that the DGP was not discharging his duties properly.

“Now we have learnt that a SIT has been constituted to probe the attacks on BJP workers. Can their SITs be relied upon? They had formed an SIT against those who had embezzled the scholarships meant for the SC students. We all know what came of it,” said Sharma.

He claimed that the BJP delegation had met DGP despite not having any expectations from him. “He is a boneless DGP. In democracy, every party has the right to hold their programme. Even farmers have the right to protest. The same right to protest exists for me and my party too,” he said.

Sharma said BJP workers and leaders have been gheraoed at their homes for the past 90 days. “We have seen many protests and demonstrations in our political career. But we have never seen any such protest where people camp right inside your house and abuse your mothers and sisters and threaten to boycott you socially while the police offers them protection. The police has given a licence to the protestors to invade our privacy. I am giving a warning to the DGP. Enough is enough,” he said.

“DGP sahib, I have no hope from you but am saying this. Do your duty. Wake up,” he added.

Stating that BJP sympathises with the farmers who are sitting on protest in the biting cold, he said, “Our Patiala district president’s house was locked up and he was not allowed to move out. He has a young daughter and no parent can listen to the kind of language that is being used by the protesters who are sitting right in front of his house,” he said.

Sharma said he appealed to the leaders of the farmers’ agitation that they should protect their stir from mischievous elements who want to sabotage it.

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