Punjab AAP: Country not autocracy, will run according to Constitution

Chandigarh, May 7: AAP Punjab, on Saturday, hit out at the BJP government at the Centre and in Haryana over the controversy surrounding Tajinder Singh Bagga’s arrest, and said this country will run according to the Constitution and not in an autocratic manner.

The ruling Aam Aadmi Party’s (AAP’s) chief spokesperson for Punjab, Malvinder Singh Kang, said the state’s police had followed “all procedures” in arresting the BJP leader from his residence in Delhi.

The AAP leader said five notices were served to Mr Bagga to join the investigation after an FIR was registered against him by the Punjab police on April 1, “but he did not respond.”

Claiming that Mr Bagga was a habitual offender, Mr Kang said, “This is not the first case against him. A habitual offender was being brought to be produced before a court in Mohali, but he was released and the Punjab police officers were detained. The entire country watched this autocratic behaviour of the BJP-led government at the Centre and in Haryana.”

The AAP spokesperson for Punjab said Mr Bagga faced more than 20 cases in Delhi, West Bengal, and Chhattisgarh.

“Such anti-social elements should get punishment as per the law of the land, but unfortunately the country’s government is coming out in his support,” he alleged.

“This country will run according to law, Constitution, and not in an autocratic manner,” Mr Kang said.

The Punjab police had, in April, booked Mr Bagga on charges of making provocative statements, promoting enmity, and criminal intimidation. The case was registered on a complaint by AAP leader Sunny Ahluwalia, a resident of Mohali.

The FIR registered on April 1 referred to Mr Bagga’s remarks a day earlier, when he was part of a BJP youth wing protest outside the residence of Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal.

Mr Bagga, also the national secretary of the Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha (BYJM), was arrested by the Punjab police from his home on Friday morning, but the Haryana police stopped him in that state while being taken to Punjab. The Delhi police then took him back to the national capital.

Mr Kang said it was surprising that even the Congress came out in support of the BJP on this issue. “It proves that the Congress and the BJP are two sides of the same coin,” he said.

Meanwhile, BYJM workers staged a protest outside the AAP party office here and raised slogans against the AAP dispensation.