Punjab Chief Minister Bahagwant Mann is questioning the External Affairs Ministry on why Amritsar is chosen for the landing of Indian illegal immigrants’ flight from America. He asked the “criteria” based on which the Center has chosen Amritsar to land the aircraft.
During a press conference, Mann asked, “You select Amritsar to defame Punjab…so at the same time when PM Modi and Trump were meeting, they must have been putting shackles on our people. Is this the gift Trump has given?”
The remarks drew criticism and severe backlash from Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) and other opposition leaders. BJP leaders immediately hit out at the CM saying that the AAP leader is degrading his own state, advising him to avoid doing any politics on such sensitive issues. BJP MP Praveen Khandelwal said that AAP leaders “do not care about the security of the country. They only do politics.”
BJP MLA Manjinder Singh Sirsa said that these were the travel agents who looted the youth of Punjab, prompting them to sell their lands and fly to America through illegal routes. He added, “How could the travel agents flourish? They made thousands of people jobless…AAP should think about how they destroyed Punjab. They said that people would leave everything and return to Punjab, but they are selling their lands to leave Punjab and AAP is still creating drama.”
Fatehjung Singh Bajwa, the vice president of BJP in Punjab said that the majority of the persons returning (67 out of 119) are from Punjab. By saying all this, the CM is only politicizing the matter, “degrading his own state.” Sounding similar to Sirsa, he said, “They are taking huge sums of money and sending the children to other countries. Immigration is the biggest industry in Punjab. What action is been taken against illegal immigrant centers? The issue should not be politicized. The families of Punjab are already under pressure…nothing was done when they were leaving and now the CM is making it a political matter.”
Jaiveer Shergill, the national spokesperson of BJP said that CM Mann has “no right to ask questions but today he has to give answers.”
Not only BJP, but some Congress leaders also criticized the Punjab CM “calling it to merely create headlines. It was all meaningless.”
The second aircraft bringing 119 illegal Indian immigrants staying in US back home will land in Amritsar on Saturday by 10 pm -11 pm.