Chandigarh, 7 April 2024
In protest against the arrest of AAP convenor Arvind Kejriwal, Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann, cabinet ministers, MLAs, office bearers, workers and a large number of people observed a daylong fast at Khatkar Kalan on Sunday. Bhagwant Mann launched a fierce attack on the BJP and said that this collective fast is a message to the dictators.
He said that we have gathered against dictatorship in Khatkar Kalan, the village of Shaheed-e-Azam Bhagat Singh. Today, educated, and patriotic people are afraid that democracy will be finished.
Bhagwant Mann said the martyrs of the country were wary about the hands the country would go to after independence. Today their worries and fears have been proved right. The British left but now we have black Britishers. These people started looting our country. They started putting people in jail to silence the opposition.
Today, the soul of Shaheed-e-Azam Bhagat Singh must be in so much pain that he had sacrificed his life at the age of 23 for this freedom. During the British rule, when Shaheed Bhagat Singh was in jail, he used to speak from the jail and became his own lawyer. The media was allowed there. Whatever he used to say used to be published in all the newspapers the next day. Can you get it published today? Today, no news is allowed to come out. Only the news that is of their choice is allowed to be printed. If it doesn’t suit them then the news does not come out.
The Punjab Chief Minister said, “I meet many elderly people who tell me that British rule was better than this. Today the democracy of the country is in danger and the sacrifice of the martyrs is also in danger. It was from this place that we first decided that the Chief Minister’s photo will not be put up in any government office in Punjab. The photos of Shaheed-e-Azam Bhagat Singh and Dr Bhim Rao Ambedkar will be put up there. So that freedom and the Constitution can be saved.”
He said that these people have become the masters of the country. They keep the tableau of our martyrs out of the 26th January parade. Who are they to reject the sacrifices of the martyrs? Who are these people who show their personal favourite tableaux on 26th January? He said that nothing is right in this country. So, let’s come together and try to take the freedom of the martyrs’ dreams to the common households.
He said that our party becoming a national party in just 10 years scares them. Unnerved, they have now found a way to conduct raids on all the national level leaders and put them in jail and silence their voice.
Bhagwant Mann said they want that there should be no voice that can top their voice. Arvind Kejriwal’s voice was reaching every corner of the country. Whenever he spoke, he spoke the truth. Even today, whenever he speaks, he speaks the truth. We are also his soldiers, otherwise who would have known us. Today we are sitting as ministers and chairmen only because Arvind Kejriwal brought the sons and daughters of common families into politics and made them leaders.
The Punjab Chief Minister said they think that they will suppress our voice by putting Arvind Kejriwal in jail. But Arvind Kejriwal is not a person, he is a thought. You can catch Arvind Kejriwal but how will you silence his voice, what will you do with the millions of Kejriwals born in the country?
“Arvind Kejriwal used the word guarantee in the 2022 election campaign. We used to give guarantees. First guarantee free electricity, second guarantee jobs, third guarantee Aam Aadmi clinics, fourth guarantee world class schools, fifth guarantee industry, sixth guarantee ration will be delivered at your doorstep, seventh guarantee government will be run from villages etc. When people started believing in our guarantees because the guarantees started getting fulfilled first in Punjab and then in Delhi, then these people also started using the term guarantee. But their guarantees are hollow words only,” said Bhagwant Mann.
He said that Modi ji goes to every place every day and says that he will not spare the corrupt. What he means is that he will include all the corrupt people in the country in the BJP. They have a washing machine. They wash the corrupt people in it, then declare them clean and make them BJP leaders.
Bhagwant Mann said that Shaheed Bhagat Singh ji had to change his disguise to get freedom. He could not hold such rallies. Now there is no need to change any disguise. Just press the button of ‘jharoo’ (broom), and Bhagat Singh’s revolution will come. His soul will get peace. We are fighting the war of independence.
He said that today the Centre is discriminating against Punjab. It has stopped Rs 5500 crore of RDF (Rural Development Fund). I am fighting them alone. I go to the Supreme Court. I fight the Governor. I am fighting the BJP.
Bhagwant Mann said that there is no need to be afraid of going to jail. Our leader has not gone to jail for the first time. Punjab has led many times. Be it the war of independence or the green revolution. Punjab always leads. Then the country follows. We have to support Arvind Kejriwal and take his ideas forward.
He said that when there is a non-BJP government in any state, they resort to harassment. I also have to go to the Supreme Court on every issue. The governor is harassing and the centre has stopped our funds. Arvind Kejriwal was put in jail at the time of elections because the Aam Aadmi Party was a threat to the BJP.
The Punjab Chief Minister said they are saying that they will cross 400 seats, but nothing like that is going to happen. People have already made up their mind that they will vote against this dictatorship. What have they done till now apart from buying MLAs and MPs? If they are so confident about getting more than 400 seats, then why are they poaching ministers and MLAs of other parties and why are they putting opposition leaders in jail? Actually, they are afraid of losing, he concluded.
