Punjab Police arrested former Congress MLA Kulbir Singh Zira in the wee hours on October 17 from his residence in Ferozepur district allegedly for obstructing government officials from performing their duties.
The arrest evoked a sharp response from the Congress against its Indian National Development, Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) partner, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), which is ruling in Punjab.
The verbal attack by the senior Congress leaders against the AAP government indicates the widening rift between the partners of the INDIA bloc that intend to take on the BJP at the national level in the 2024 parliamentary poll.
The former Congress legislator, who is the Congress party’s district unit chief, was arrested around 4.30 a.m. and later produced before a local court, which sent him to judicial custody for 14 days.
He was arrested based on a complaint lodged by a block development panchayat officer, who alleged that Mr. Zira and his supporters obstructed the officer and other staff from performing their duties during a protest that happened a few days ago.
Mr. Zira had staged a sit-in protest from October 10 to 13, accusing the officer of adopting biased behaviour towards various development works. Interestingly, Mr. Zira had announced that he would go for a court arrest on Tuesday, however, he was arrested ahead of the court arrest.
The arrest of the Congress leader is being seen as another blow to the INDIA bloc unity in the run-up to the 2024 parliamentary election as the relations between the Congress and the AAP continue to turn sour, as their leaders have been already vocal against any political alliance with each other in Punjab.
Recently, Punjab Congress MLA Sukhpal Khaira was arrested in connection with a case surrounding the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act, pertaining to the year 2015, to which the Congress party had reacted sharply, terming the move as ‘politically motivated’ by the AAP. The AAP, however, justified the arrest of the Congress MLA and dismissed the allegation of any ‘political vendetta’.
act of ‘political vendetta
Terming the arrest of Mr. Zira as an act of ‘political vendetta’, the leader of the Opposition in Punjab, Congress’ Partap Singh Bajwa, said the arrogance of Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann is going out of control now.
“After the illegal arrest of the fearless Congress MLA Sukhpal Khaira, the AAP government has arrested the former Congress MLA Kulbir Zira without following the due legal course. The Punjab Congress will not tolerate this and will fight tooth and nail against the vendetta politics of the AAP government,” he said.
The Congress leaders have been consistently pointing out to the party’s ‘high command’ that the AAP had unleashed a ‘witch-hunt’ campaign against the Congress leaders and workers by allegedly misusing the police and investigation agencies and have equated an alliance with the AAP as Congress’ ‘death warrant’.
AAP’s State leadership has also clearly dismissed the possibility of an alliance with the Congress.
Hitting out at the AAP, Congress’ State unit chief Amarinder Singh Raja Warring said the party would hold protests to oppose the arrest of Mr. Zira.
