A political storm erupted in Punjab on Friday as BJP and Congress leaders tore into Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann over claims he was visibly drunk in the state legislative assembly. The attacks centered on the AAP leader’s past promises to eradicate drugs from the state, now seemingly contradicted by his own alleged behavior.
Virender Sachdeva, BJP chief in Delhi, led the charge with unsparing words. He decried the spectacle of a high office bearer stumbling through speeches in an inebriated state within democracy’s sacred halls. ‘This is the same man who boasted of a drug-free Punjab, yet he’s leading youth astray,’ Sachdeva thundered to reporters.
Drawing parallels, he accused Arvind Kejriwal of fostering a parallel culture of laxity in the national capital. Meanwhile, Congress’s Amarinder Singh Raja Warring spotlighted the CM’s apparent violation of house decorum. ‘Leaders set examples; Mann is setting a dangerous precedent,’ he stated, calling for definitive rebuttal to the charges.
Warring delved deeper, suggesting the AAP regime is buckling under external and internal strains, including uncertainties around key allies and distrust among its legislators. ‘They’re in a precarious spot, second-guessing their own ranks,’ he observed.
Partap Singh Bajwa, the assembly’s opposition head, framed the episode as a nadir in Indian democratic history. ‘Never before has a chief minister been hit with such serious allegations spanning 75 years post-independence, and yet remained silent,’ Bajwa asserted.
This clash underscores deepening rifts in Punjab politics, where anti-drug rhetoric clashes with personal conduct allegations. With elections on the horizon, Mann’s AAP faces a credibility test that could reshape the state’s power dynamics.
