Kunwar Vijay Pratap Singh paid price for exposing AAP, says Opposition

The Opposition on Sunday attacked state’s ruling AAP, saying it suspended its Amritsar legislator Kunwar Vijay Pratap Singh as he exposed party leaders involved in drug trade and questioned the Punjab Government over its failure to ensure justice in sacrilege cases.

The MLA has been vocal against his party’s government in recent past. In the wake of the Amritsar spurious liquor tragedy, he had alleged that people involved in the illicit trade had become “a part of the regime and running the show”.

He had also questioned the government over the timing and the rationale behind the arrest of SAD leader Bikram Singh Majithia in a disproportionate assets case.

Slamming AAP, Leader of the Opposition in the state Assembly Partap Singh Bajwa said Vijay Pratap paid the price of “speaking truth”.

In apost of X (formerly Twitter), Bajwa said the only fault of the MLA was that he “exposed failures of the Bhagwant Mann-led state government. “The MLA’s suspension is a badge of honour for standing with truth and Punjab,” Bajwa said.

The Congress leader said when Vijay Pratap — a former IPS officer — joined AAP, party’s national convener Arvind Kejriwal had promised to end the drug menace while bringing to book culprits of sacrilege cases in the state.

“But Kunwar Vijay Pratap — one of @AAPPunjab’s few honest, courageous MLAs has been suspended for speaking the truth!” he said.

State Congress chief Amrinder Singh Raja Warring said though the suspension of the MLA was an internal matter of AAP, the state government owed answers to questions he had been asking raised on sacrilege and drug cases. “It (AAP) may suspend its MLA, but what about the three crore Punjabis who are asking the same questions that Kunwar Vijay Pratap has been asking?” questioned Warring.

BJP’s state general secretary Anil Sarin said the MLA had earlier accused AAP MPs of “protecting two police officers who were carrying out illegal drug trade in Amritsar”. “But no action has been taken on it. Rather, the MLA has been suspended,” he said. He said it was also strange that the government filed a closure report in a case against former minister Vijay Singla, whom Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann had accused of corruption. “CM Mann had said that he had evidence against Singla. Was Bhagwant Mann lying?” he asked.

Amritsar