Mann skips AAP rally amid row over land pooling policy

Amid sparring over the contentious land pooling policy, Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann skipped the AAP’s Rakhar Punia rally at Baba Bakala on Saturday, despite the govenrment earlier inviting the public to the event through advertisements published in dailies.

Cabinet Minister Harbhajan Singh ETO was made the chief guest at the last moment as Mann, along with AAP national convener Arvind Kejriwal, visited Tarn Taran to inaugurate an anti-drone system. Later, Mann and Kejriwal went to Amritsar.

The Opposition parties, which also held political rallies on the occasion, targeted the state’s AAP government over the policy.

The Punjab and Haryana High Court had on August 7 stayed the initiative after the government refused to withdraw it. The court gave the government four weeks to address the concerns.

Meanwhile, the security was extremely tight on the main road leading to the Gurdwara Baba Bakala Sahib.

The entire focus of the security personnel was on not letting people assemble in large groups to prevent any demonstration, which might have caused embarrassment to the government.

On the stage set by the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD), party leader Daljit Singh Cheema had to stop dhadi singers (folk singers who present heroic ballads) midway to request the police to lift the restrictions to let people pass.

‘Promises fulfilled by govt’

Minister Harbhajan Singh ETO congratulated people on the occasion and claimed that the promises made to people by ruling AAP prior to the 2022 Assembly elections had “almost been fulfilled”.

He said these included 600 units of free electricity to every household, eight hours of uninterrupted electricity to farmers, takeover of a thermal plant from a private company. He said despite these freebies, the Power Department was in a profit of over Rs 2,500 crore.

Legislator Kuldeep Singh Dhaliwal thanked Mann and Kejriwal for the introduction of the anti-drone system, which he said would stop cross-border smuggling.

Baba Bakala MLA Dalbir Singh Tong claimed that a majority of the roads in the constituency had been repaired. “Of over 200 schools in the area, development works in 130 have been completed,” he claimed.

Will return land if voted to power, says Sukhbir

 

Meanwhile, SAD president Sukhbir Badal, who is pushing for the party’s rebound in the state, said if voted to power in the 2027 Assembly poll, his party’s government would return farmers’ land acquired under the policy to them.

He invoked the days when the SAD was a formidable force in Punjab. He credited it to the fighting spirit of Akali workers.

“We can sacrifice our lives but will not allow forcible acquisition of even an inch of farmers’ land. It is for this reason that we are launching a ‘Zameen Bachao Morcha’, under which Akali workers will undertake a march every day from Amb Sahib Gurdwara in Mohali to the new ‘Sheesh Mahal, where AAP chief (Kejriwal) is residing,” he added. “Sheesh Mahal” was the term coined by the Delhi Opposition for the official residence of Kejriwal, when he was the Chief Minister there, highlighting a large sum of money spent on the renovation of the bungalow.

The SAD on Thursday had decided to launch an indefinite sit-in from September 1 against the policy.

Sukhbir also claimed that Kejriwal “intended to grab fertile farm land for peanuts and hand it over to builders from Delhi” as part of a “multi-crore deal”.

Sukhbir also promised that if voted to power, his party would ensure government jobs to “Punjabis only” besides making it mandatory for private companies to hire 80 per cent of their employees from among Punjabis.

Channi, Bajwa give Cong event a miss

The Congress event was skipped by several leaders, including former Punjab Chief Minister and Jalandhar Lok Sabha MP Charanjit Singh Channi and the Leader of the Opposition in the Punjab Assembly, Partap Singh Bajwa.

Former state deputy CM Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa shared the stage with Punjab Congress president Amrinder Singh Raja Warring on the occasion.

Randhawa announced that Congress leaders, along with party workers, would go door-to-door across Punjab to mobilise people against the land pooling policy after the conclusion of the monsoon session of Parliament on August 21.

Warring admitted that some mistakes by the previous Congress government had led to the party’s ouster from power in the 2022 poll.

He exhorted all Congress workers to sink their differences so that they could take up the cause of disgruntled farmers, traders, businessmen and the working classes.

The Congress rally was held amid growing differences among its leaders, especially after the Ludhiana (West) Assembly bypoll debacle.

Amritpal’s outfit seeks release of Bandi Singhs

At the rally of the Akali Dal (Waris Punjab De), Khadoor Sahib Lok Sabha MP Amritpal Singh’s father Tarsem Singh, Faridkot MP Sarbjit Singh and many others were present.

They demanded the release of the Sikhs languishing in jails despite the completion of their sentences. They opposed the land pooling policy, describing it as a “conspiracy to forcibly acquire farmers’ land”.

They announced that any attempt to “dispossess Punjab’s farmers from their land would be firmly resisted”.

The SAD (Amritsar), along with the Dal Khalsa, held a joint rally.

Punjab