Protesting farmers snub Mann

Wednesday, 23/09/2015

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BATHINDA: Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) MP Bhagwant Mann, who had planned to address farmers — hundreds of whom are on a dharna here, seeking compensation for their whitefly-hit cotton crop — had to abandon his plans as farmer leaders didn’t allow him to share the stage with them or address the gathering.

AAP MP Bhagwant Mann talking to the media in Bathinda on Tuesday.

Farmer leaders conveyed to AAP leaders that they wouldn’t allow any political interference in their protest.

Meanwhile, with the statewide ‘Punjab Jodo’ campaign set to end in the first week of October, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) plans to launch the ‘Punjab Bolda Hai’ (Punjab speaks) campaign early next year, to be conducted on the lines of the ‘Delhi dialogue’.

The campaign will include discussions with a cross-section of people on problems plaguing Punjab and their solutions on the basis of consultations with experts in various fields. These solutions, if workable, would be included in the party manifesto for the 2017 assembly polls.

Stating this here on Tuesday, Mann, AAP MP from Sangrur, said the programme would focus on discussions with people representing fields such as agriculture, education, trade and industry, health, and seek suggestions from the people for offering solutions.

“Before the Delhi assembly polls, we discussed the issues with the people and their workable solutions with experts. In Punjab also, we would follow this process. The campaign would start early in 2016. The AAP’s manifesto won’t be a bundle of lies and false promises, but a vision document for Punjab,” he said.

On Captain Amarinder Singh’s reported statement that far-left and far-right forces had joined the AAP in Punjab, Mann said it was a remark made out of frustration, adding that the AAP was a secular party.

Accusing the SAD-BJP government and the previous Congress regime of patronising mafias, he said land, sand, transport and cable mafias had flourished under both governments.

TWO BRANDS OF LIQUOR
Mann quipped: “When the SAD-BJP is in power, a liquor brand named Jugni dominates the market because it is being manufactured by members of the ruling alliance. When the Congress would be in power, another liquor brand, Heer, would rule the market as it is produced by a Congress leader.”

After talking to the media, Mann addressed lawyers at the district court complex here. Local lawyers have levelled allegations of corruption against three judicial officers here.