Chandigarh: The suicide by a farmer in Sangrur district has triggered a no-holds barred slugfest between opposition parties and the ruling AAP in Punjab.While opposition is clamouring for an FIR against finance minister Harpal Singh Cheema and his dismissal from the cabinet, alleging that the victim took his name in his final video before his death, AAP has condemned what it calls “vulture politics”.Led by Punjab Congress president Amrinder Singh Raja Warring, party workers from across Punjab marched towards the chief minister’s residence to gherao it but were stopped by police water cannons. Warring demanded the immediate dismissal and arrest of Cheema, holding him responsible for Gulzar’s suicide.Congress accused AAP of letting “loose anarchy” in Punjab and “surrendering to gangsters”, while failing to curb the problem of drugs. Addressing a news conference in Delhi, Congress Legislative Party Leader in Punjab assembly Partap Singh Bajwa said: “No matter what AAP does, it will never be able to win elections again in Punjab.”Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) president Sukhbir Singh Badal visited Gulzar’s family on Tuesday, and demanded an abetment-to-suicide case against Cheema and all others allegedly named by Gulzar.“What can be more significant than a dying person’s final statement? Despite Gulzar Singh explicitly naming finance minister Harpal Cheema and several AAP workers, holding them directly responsible for threatening and beating him, the FIR does not mention Cheema even once. Why? Who decided to ignore the victim’s dying declaration? It’s time for NHRC, and national media to highlight this,” Badal posted on X.SAD’s Bikram Singh Majithia accused police of pressuring Gulzar to apologise. He termed the suicide a ‘killing’ and demanded an FIR against Cheema.A Punjab BJP delegation, led by state party president Kewal Singh Dhillon, on Tuesday submitted a memorandum to Punjab Governor Gulab Chand Kataria, seeking urgent intervention into two incidents in Sangrur — Gulzar’s suicide and alleged custodial torture of protester Mohanjeet Singh.BJP demanded an FIR for abetment to suicide against Cheema. The memorandum alleges Gulzar faced pressure from local panchayat members to apologise for raising the issue.“As Cheema is the finance minister of Punjab, we don’t expect free and fair investigation so after registration of FIR, the investigation should be entrusted to an independent agency like CBI, so that there is no possibility of influence, intimidation or destruction of evidence. The dying declaration, video recordings, communications, statements of family members and other relevant evidence must be preserved and investigated in accordance with law,” it added.AAP reacted sharply, accusing opposition of trying to derive political mileage from a family’s grief.In a video message, AAP media in charge Baltej Pannu said, “Opposition parties are indulging in such dirty politics that it can be called the ‘politics of vultures’. Wherever someone dies by suicide or wherever a dead body is found, they reach there and try to bake political bread over the funeral pyre.”Pannu said the Opposition immediately moved to exploit the Gulzar tragedy. “His last rites were performed with the consent of his family. Despite this, they are refusing to stop this politics,” he said.Urging political parties to show greater sensitivity in situations involving the death of a person, he said: “Punjab govt stands with every resident of Punjab and with his family. We do not indulge in this kind of politics, and we will not allow it.”AAP national media in charge Anurag Dhanda added, “BJP, Congress and Akali Dal have become extremely desperate in Punjab. The way AAP govt is promoting sports and working to control drugs in Punjab has left them rattled. Controlling drugs is a long process, but the manner in which AAP govt is working made them frustrated. So, whenever they have nothing else to say, they start making absurd allegations.”“If a person comes before a minister and raises his problem, it shows that he has faith in govt. That is why he brings his problem before the minister. As soon as the problem was raised, all the people whose names were mentioned by the family were taken into police custody. All of them have been arrested,” he said.
