Keeping up the offensive against the ruling Badal family in Punjab, Congress has sought an appointment with President Pranab Mukherjee to highlight the "total breakdown" of the law and order situation as reflected in the Moga molestation incident.
AICC General Secretary Shakeel Ahmed has written a letter to the President seeking an appointment to apprise him of the "grim" situation. Ahmad is likely to be accompanied by Congress MPs and MLAs as also PCC President and CLP leader.
Ahmed said at the AICC briefing that the B K Bali Commission, appointed by the state government, to look into the incident was "not acceptable" to Congress as Bali has been the standing counsel of the state government in Supreme Court. "It is an eyewash," he said.
State Congress President Partap Singh Bajwa, who too addressed the briefing, demanded an inquiry by a sitting high court judge into the incident. He said that the CBI should be asked to help in the probe.
Alleging that the Badals have turned Punjab into a 'Banana Republic', Bajwa said Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Badal should have been booked for culpability in the killing of a girl in the Moga incident for criminal negligence. To drive home his point, he cited the examples of Uphaar cinema fire and Uber Radio Taxi rape cases.
Bajwa argued that given the present facts and circumstances where Punjab Police instead of upholding the rule of law was functioning to protect and shield Sukhbir Badal and his family members from the process of law, who ironically was also the Home Minister, clearly demonstrated "complete breakdown of constitutional machinery."
Bajwa also detailed how the transport companies of Badals were calling the shots with their bus fleet rising from 40 to 500 in the last seven years at a time when the state transport buses were becoming less and less.
A teenage girl was alleged molested and pushed to death from a bus owned by a company of the ruling Badal family in Moga last month.
