Congress protests at Bhagat Singh's ancestral village over corruption charges against minister

Chandigarh, Oct 21 (IANS) Hundreds of Congress workers, led by Punjab unit President Amarinder Singh Raja Warring and Leader of the Opposition, Partap Singh Bajwa, on Friday staged a protest dharna in front of the memorial of revolutionary Bhagat Singh in Kharak Kalan, demanding dismissal and arrest of Minister Fauja Singh Sarari on corruption charges.

Addressing the dharna, Warring said that if the government did not take any action against Sarari, the party would intensify its agitation across the state.

He said Friday's dharna was only symbolic to serve an ultimatum to the government that it cannot have double standards. "On one hand, Congress leaders are booked and jailed without any evidence, on the other hand the minister against whom there is case was roaming scot-free," he said.

He also announced that the Congress will stage a protest demonstration at Mohali on November 1 to protest against the intimidation and victimisation of the Congress workers at the grassroots level.

Warring exhorted the Congress workers to remain strong, united and firm in their resolve to fight against the excesses and high handedness of the Aam Aadmi Party government.

"Nothing is permanent here and it is matter of some time more," he said, while expressing confidence that the Congress will bounce back stronger.

Bajwa criticised Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann's double standards on Sarari, alleging that he was deliberately protecting him.

He said the Sarari incident had completely exposed Mann and warned that the Congress party will not rest till the minister was not removed.

Condemning AAP convenor Arvind Kejriwal for "shamefully" equating Shaheed-e-Azam Bhagat Singh with "tainted" ministers like Satyender Jain and Manish Sisodia, he said while Bhagat Singh had sacrificed his life for the freedom of the country at such a young age, "the two tainted ministers with whom Kejriwal was trying to compare the great martyr were neck deep in corruption".

Bajwa said that Jain and Sisodia were facing serious charges and investigations by the Enforcement Directorate and the Central Bureau of Investigation with offshore accounts and assets worth crores of rupees.