Chandigarh: Congress representatives across Punjab on Saturday protested the arrest of party worker Arshdeep Singh in Tanda, Hoshiarpur, for allegedly disrespecting the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) symbol, the broom. In defiance of the government action against their colleague, Congress workers across the state disassembled brooms.
Punjab Congress president Amrinder Singh Raja Warring condemned the "dictatorial and authoritarian" action of the Punjab Police in arresting a Congress worker for a "mere symbolic act of resistance." He said such action against a Congress worker just because he disassembled a broom showed how frustrated and insecure the AAP government was.
Warring said that while the AAP acted swiftly to arrest Arshdeep for what it perceived as disrespect to its party symbol, the government showed complete paralysis when addressing the sacrilege of Guru Granth Sahib. He reminded the AAP and its leaders that they had promised justice in the case of sacrilege to Guru Granth Sahib within 24 hours. But now, they have been in power for more than four years, and still no action has been taken.
The Ludhiana MP thanked the Congress workers who staged protests across the state and expressed solidarity with Arshdeep. He said the AAP's hyper-reaction in ordering the arrest of Arshdeep for a routine protest reflected the level of insecurity it was suffering from.
Warring said the "disassembling" of the broom was just the beginning, and it had already started haunting AAP leaders. He asked the AAP leaders, "Today the people have started disassembling the broom only, which you take as disrespect; what will you do when they completely throw and kick you out of Punjab in the elections?"
The PCC chief told the AAP leaders that their countdown had begun and no dictatorial action against the opposition could stop that.
