AAP trying to muzzle voice of media in Punjab: Sukhbir Badal
Darpan News Desk IANS, 26 May, 2023 10:13 AM
Chandigarh, May 26 (IANS) Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) President Sukhbir Badal on Friday accused the AAP government in Punjab of trying to muzzle the voice of media ever since it assumed power.
"The government has registered false cases against journalists besides banning web channels and even stopping advertisements to publications which refused to relay its propaganda," he said.
"It has also proceeded against artists, academicians and intellectuals. The SAD will do its utmost to guard the freedom of the press and democratic values and warns the AAP government not to trample upon civil rights in this manner."
Reacting to summoning of Managing Editor of the Ajit newspaper, Barjinder Singh Hamdard, Badal said the act of summoning of Hamdard by the state Vigilance Bureau was a "brazen act of a power drunk Chief Minister who wanted to exact revenge against the him for his principled stand on freedom of the press".
In a statement here, the SAD President expressed solidarity with Hamdard and said the Akali Dal would do its utmost to defend the voice of the media in Punjab.
Asserting that the intimidation of Hamdard had shocked Punjabis worldwide, Badal said the Chief Minister first stopped advertisements to the Ajit newspaper. "Then it started intimidating functionaries of the Ajit and now it has stooped down to persecuting its Managing Director. This is the height of vendetta politics and is totally unacceptable in a democracy."
At the time of the Partition, Mumtaz Bibi was an infant who was lying on her mother's dead body who was killed by the violent mobs, Dawn news reported. One Muhammad Iqbal and his wife, Allah Rakhi, adopted the infant and raised her as their own daughter, naming her Mumtaz Bibi.
The meeting between the Chief Minister and leaders of 23 farmers' unions under the banner of the Sanyukt Kisan Morcha that lasted for over two and half hours here.
Besides, the NCSC also asked the government to stop the eviction drive and maintain status quo. In a complaint to the NCSC, residents of Bhama Kalan village said they have possession of 200 acres in the village since 1947.
Talwandi Sabo Power Limited, a private firm based in Mansa, took the help of a middleman and allegedly paid Rs 50 lakh to get the visa issued for the Chinese nationals which would help it in completing a project before the deadline, according to the CBI.
The former Chief Minister hoped the state government, instead of adopting a confrontationist attitude, will co-operate and co-ordinate with the Central government to handle all the security and other issues Punjab is challenged with.
As the year-long protest against the Centre's farm laws at the Delhi borders ended in November last year with the revoking of the three Central farm laws, hundreds of Punjab farmers on Tuesday gathered on the outskirts of the state capital demanding compensation of Rs 500 per quintal for those who suffered losses due to early onset of early summer.
