Chandigarh: Ashwani Sharma, the newly appointed working president of the Punjab BJP on Sunday launched a scathing attack on chief minister Bhagwant Mann, accusing him of running a "circus’’ instead of a government over the past three years and four months, ever since the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) came to power.
Addressing a gathering after assuming the charge as state’s working chief of the party on Sunday, Sharma accused Mann of diverting Punjabis' attention from pressing issues by raising trivial matters - much like circus performers distract audiences from real-life challenges.
The function was attended by BJP Punjab president Sunil Jakhar, union minister Ravneet Singh Bittu, national secretary BJP Narinder Singh Raina, MP Rajya Sabha Satnam Singh Sandhu and several senior party leaders.
Sharma asked why Mann, despite convening a special assembly session on sacrilege, had failed to deliver on Arvind Kejriwal’s January 12, 2022, promise of ensuring justice within 30 days in sacrilege cases, including Bargari, through fast-track courts.
To obscure the AAP’s failure to fulfill its key election pledge - eliminating drugs within 30 days of assuming power - Mann launched ``Yudh Nshe Virudh” as a diversionary tactic, Sharma alleged and added that Mann stages a ``circus’’ around corruption to avoid answering why no action has been taken against the four senior Congress leaders he accused of graft in the Punjab assembly.
On the BBMB issue, Sharma claimed Mann’s government has neglected Punjab’s interests by failing to fill the state’s quota of 2,550 posts in the Bhakra Beas Management Board (BBMB) over the past three years. Instead of addressing this, the government has repeatedly raised the issue of central security forces' deployment in NITI Aayog meetings, passing resolutions in cabinet and assembly sessions. Sharma argued that objections should have been raised in BBMB board meetings to halt the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) appointment.
``Bhagwant Mann seems to have forgotten he is no longer a stage performer but holds a constitutional office - the chief ministership of Punjab,’’ Sharma said and held that Punjab BJP will respond in the same language Mann uses - but four times louder, on the streets.
