AAP MLAs Face Public Ire; Protests Roil Panjab

Accusing the ruling Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) of broken promises, loan-waiver failures, and collaboration with Bharatiya Janata Party, villagers in Panjab have banned their entry in their villages. On 5 Apr Panjab Assembly Speaker Kultar Singh Sandhwan was heckled in village Surjapuri, Muktsar. Since then, a number of ruling AAP Members of Legislative Assembly have faced protests: Dalbir Singh Tong in Baba Bakala, Naresh Kataria in Zira, Gurdev Singh Dev Mann in Nabha, Dr. Balbir Singh in Patiala, Gurdit Singh Sekhon in Faridkot, Gurmeet Singh Khuddian in Lambi, and Rajneesh Dahiya in Ferozepur Rural, among others. On 23 Apr, Punjab Agricultural University became a police garrison when officers pre-empted a non-teaching staff rally over the suspension of junior laboratory assistant Amrik Singh, detaining leaders, sealing gates, until Deputy Commissioner Himanshu Jain, Ludhiana Police Commissioner Swapan Sharma, and Vice-Chancellor Satbir Singh Gosal promised a three-day review. On 26 Apr, in Akhara village, Ludhiana, police resorted to caning and detaining 19 people while dismantling a year-long sit-in against a biogas plant. The same day Rajya Sabha (Upper House of Parliament) Member of Parliament Balbir Singh Seechewal phoned Punjab Pollution Control Board secretary Gurinder Singh Majithia, insisting that No-Objection Clearance be withheld for a paper mill proposed between Dholran and Bassi Gujaran beside Buddha Dariya and Neelon Canal. The Chamkaur Sahib Morcha (front) warns effluent would poison waterways near historic Gurdwaras and has mobilised residents for a 30 Apr public hearing. In another development, over 700 academics, activists and artists across India—including Arundhati Roy, Indira Jaising, and Vrinda Grover—have urged Chief Minister Bhagwant Singh Mann to suspend and charge officers who battered Bharatiya Kisan Union (Ekta Ugrahan) women protesting against Adarsh (Ideal) school management at Chowke village, Bathinda on 5 Apr, rupturing the union’s general secretary Harinder Kaur Bindu’s eardrums. They seek a First Information Report, independent probe and dismissal of cases (earlier coverage).