CHANDIGARH: Leader of the Opposition and senior Congress leader Partap Singh Bajwa has come down heavily on Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann, accusing him of turning governance into a stage for theatrics, following the Punjab Police’s clean chit to AAP’s own MLA and former Health Minister Vijay Singla in a 2022 bribery case.
“In 2022, CM Bhagwant Mann made a grand spectacle of sacking his own minister, Vijay Singla, claiming he was taking commissions, ” said Bajwa. “He released a dramatic video, declaring, ‘No one else knows, I’m taking strict action!’—as though he was delivering a script, not leading a government.”
Now, with the case closed, Bajwa has questioned the authenticity of Mann’s intentions. “What was this entire exercise then? Just a scripted drama to grab headlines? Did the CM used his own party colleague just to build a false narrative of zero-tolerance?” he asked.
Notably, the former cabinet minister and AAP MLA from Guru Har Sahai, Fauja Singh Srari, and his PA, Bachittar Singh have also been given a clean chit by the SIT that was formed to probe a suicide committed by Jashan Bawa, an AAP worker and the sarpanch of Tarida village in Ferozepur.
Bajwa said that the incidents reflected a dangerous trend under the AAP regime: prioritizing optics over truth and drama over due process. “The people of Punjab were sold a story, not governance. He further slammed Mann for creating a political circus to divert attention from the AAP government’s failures on unemployment, law and order, and drug abuse. “This isn’t governance. It’s political theatre. Punjab is not a movie set. Our people deserve real leadership, not daily soap performances, ” Bajwa asserted.