PATIALA: Senior Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) leader Bikram Singh Majithia today asserted chief minister Bhagwant Mann had consumed liquor illegally during a chartered flight from Delhi to Chandigarh due to which he fell down on the tarmac after alighting from the aircraft. He demanded an appropriate probe into the case.
The SAD leader was talking to newsmen at the residence of his former OSD Rakesh Prashar whom he re-inducted into the party. Welcoming Mr Prashar back into the party, Mr Majithia said the SAD would be strengthened with Mr Prashar’s re-induction.
Speaking about yesterday’s incident at the Chandigarh airport, Mr Bikram Majithia said “the chief minister partook liquor along with his OSD during the flight from Delhi to Chandigarh”. He said it was due to this that Mr Bhagwant Mann could not stabilize himself and fell down on the tarmac after alighting from the plane.
Asserting that the chief minister was in tension for the last two days after party supremo Arvind Kejriwal informed him that he would also have to resign, Mr Majithia said “this could have been the trigger point for the subsequent liquor binge. Punjabis are witness to how the chief minister was in an inebriated state during his interview with an electronic channel also one day earlier”.
Stating that the chief minister was taken back to Delhi in a chartered plane which he described as a criminal waste of State resources, Mr Majithia said “the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government must explain why he was not admitted in any hospital in Chandigarh or Punjab? The reason is simple. If the chief minister had been admitted in any State hospital the truth would have come out that he had fallen down under the influence of liquor”.
The SAD leader said this was not the first time that the chief minister had made a spectacle of himself under the influence of liquor. He said earlier Mr Bhagwant Mann had even been found to be intoxicated in the presence of Sri Guru Granth Sahib besides being de-boarded from a Lufthansa flight because he was inebriated.
Mr Majithia also spoke on how the new Agriculture policy of the AAP government was old wine in a new bottle. He said the policy would not stop farmer suicides, would not result in any diversification of crops and would fail to save ground water depletion. He said the policy had no solution for decreasing farmer and khet mazdoor debt which had risen to one lakh crore nor any commitment to ensure minimum support price for maize and pulses to ensure diversification from paddy.
The SAD leader also condemned the manner in which social activist Malwinder Singh Mali had been arrested on trumped up charges, saying the action had reminded the people about the era of Emergency. He also castigated the AAP government for failing to rein in gangsters, saying Lawrence Bishnoi’s interview during Punjab Police custody had resulted in a rise in extortion and targeted killings as admitted by the State government in the high court. “Since Mr Bhagwant Mann is both the home minister and the jails minister he is directly responsible for this state of affairs”, he added.