CHANDIGARH: The Shiromani Akali Dal(SAD) MP from Bathinda Harsimrat Kaur Badal on Tuesday lashed out at Punjab chief minister Bhagwant Mann while speaking in the Lok Sabha and said that he is "drinking and driving the state."
Speaking on the increasing menace of illicit drugs and liquor in Punjab, she said, "Whole House knows that the present chief minister of Punjab used to sit in that corner a few months ago. Sir (Speaker), I challenge you to get details from the previous Speaker about how many complaints he had received from MPs sitting close to Mann to change their seats." She further added, "The CM who used to come to the Parliament in an inebriated state at 11am is now running the state."
Harsimrat said, "If CM is like this then you can imagine what will be the condition of the state. We find 'Don't drink and drive' written on the roads but they are drinking and driving the state."
While she was making this statement, Union home minister Amit Shah was seen laughing along with other MPs and Speaker Om Birla smiling.
The Bathinda MP also said Mann had also defamed the state after he was offloaded by Lufthansa airline while coming back from Frankfurt because he could not stand on his feet due to being severely drunk. She also asserted that it was unfortunate that an inquiry into this episode, which was promised by the Union aviation minister, had been put in cold storage.
The SAD MP said that today the drug mafia–politician nexus in Punjab coupled with the rise of narco-terrorism during Aam Aadmi Party(AAP) regime had the capacity to destroy not only Punjab but even the country. Harimrat added that AAP convener Arvind Kejriwal had promised to wipe out drugs in 10 days before the 2022 assembly elections, but in the last nine months the drug menace was destabilizing Punjab and posing a threat to national security. She said drugs were being smuggled into Punjab along with weapons and this had witnessed the rise of narco-terrorism with Punjab now witnessing RPG attacks for the first time.
She also reminded how the apex court had pulled up the Punjab government for filing a handful of charge sheets despite registering 31,000 drug related FIRs. She said it was also a matter of concern that Punjab was being ranked number one as far as smuggling of drugs into the State was concerned.
