Cancellation of Vishwas, Bagga FIRs

Coming down heavily against the Aam Aadmi Party government in the state, Punjab Congress president Amarinder Singh Raja Warring today said that the cancellation of FIRs against Dr Kumar Vishwas and Tajinder Pal Singh Bagga was a serious indictment against the way Punjab Police was functioning under the AAP government. 

   “You can’t run a professional force like Punjab Police as a private army”, he cautioned. 

    Reacting to the cancellation of the FIRs, Warring said, this has also vindicated the Congress party’s stand that the government was misusing police and vigilance bureau to settle scores with political opponents. 

    He expressed confidence that similarly the false cases registered against the Congress leaders will also fall flat in the courts and they will also be cancelled. “This is the time for the government to read the rulebook once again”, he advised the government pointing out how embarrassing it was for the police that two FIRs were cancelled by the Punjab and Haryana High Court. Someone must be held accountable for this, he said.

    The PCC president also referred to the refusal of the Punjab Governor Banwarilal Purohit to sign the appointment letter of Dr Gurpreet Singh Wander, an eminent cardiologist, as the Vice Chancellor of the Baba Farid University of Health Sciences. 

     He said, just because the government rushed through the process without following the standard rules, the Governor rejected the file. Otherwise, he added, Dr Wander is the most deserving candidate to be the VC of the university. “But thanks to the casual approach of the government borne out of incompetence and inexperience the Governor refused to sign his appointment letter and he was right in doing so as he is there to ensure the rule of law and the Constitution”, he said.

     “Democracies are not run like autocracies where you issue royal edicts of rewarding and punishing people”, he told the government while adding, “everything is subjected to legal scrutiny where you have failed miserably and repeatedly”.

      Listing various instances where AAP government had to cut a sorry figure, the PCC president said, first they promised to install statues of Baba Saheb Ambedkar and Bhagat Singh in Vidhan Sabha complex without realising that they cannot do it. Then, he added, the government wanted to call a special session of the Vidhan Sabha for presenting a Vote of Confidence for which there was no constitutional provision.

     And now, he pointed out, the appointment of the Vice Chancellor, which should have happened in normal course without any hue and cry, if proper procedures were followed, has also been rejected.