Aam Aadmi Party leaders and workers staged a protest against the BJP in Chandigarh on Monday over the arrest of Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia in the liquor scam.
Sisodia was arrested by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in connection with alleged corruption in the formulation and implementation of the now-scrapped excise policy for 2021-22.
Punjab minister Harjot Singh Bains slammed the BJP-led Centre for Sisodia’s arrest and demanded Bharat Ratna for the jailed leader.
“Delhi was lucky to have an education minister like Manish Sisodia who changed the face of the government schools. The Union government should have formed a task force of all the education ministers of the country under his leadership,” Harjot Singh Bains said, adding that the AAP leader deserves the highest civilian awards.
Terming the liquor scam “imaginary”, Bains said Manish Sisodia should have been given Bharat Ratna and Padma Shri but was harassed for months.
“His house was raided but they failed to recover even a single penny,” the Punjab minister noted.
Other protesting AAP leaders alleged that the BJP had an “agenda” to stop the AAP from carrying out its welfare programmes as it was feeling “jittery” over the “growing popularity” of the AAP and its leader Arvind Kejriwal.
Meanwhile, the Akali Dal hit out at AAP and said Sisodia deserves a “Bhrashtachar Ratna” award. The opposition party also accused Sisodia of masterminding a liquor scam in Punjab.Akali Dal leader Daljit Singh Cheema told India Today that the AAP was trying to divert public attention by staging an emotional drama and exaggerating the image of Manish Sisodia to hide his wrongdoings.
“Manish Sisodia’s arrest has been made after a long investigation and there is a bitter truth that a big liquor scandal took place in New Delhi,” he said.
Akali Dal leader Daljit Singh Cheema told India Today that the AAP was trying to divert public attention by staging an emotional drama and exaggerating the image of Manish Sisodia to hide his wrongdoings.
“Manish Sisodia’s arrest has been made after a long investigation and there is a bitter truth that a big liquor scandal took place in New Delhi,” he said.