On his first visit to Punjab after being appointed the Congress’s AICC general secretary in-charge of the state, Sachin Pilot on Tuesday led hundreds of party workers in a march towards the official residence of Finance Minister Harpal Singh Cheema, demanding that he resign from the post and be booked for abetment to suicide for the death of daily wage labourer Gulzar Singh. The march, however, was stopped by a heavy police deployment. chandigarh police used water cannons to disperse the protesters after they tried to cross barricades, with several Congress Leaders, including former MLA Kuljit Singh Nagra, sustaining injuries. Pilot, Punjab Congress president Amarinder Singh Raja Warring , Leader of Opposition Partap Singh Bajwa and other senior leaders were subsequently detained. The Congress has alleged that Gulzar Singh, from Dirba in Sangrur district, was driven to suicide after being harassed and subjected to casteist slurs for questioning Cheema over the availability of drugs in his area. Gulzar Singh died on September 7 after allegedly consuming poison. A purported video of his final moments, in which he is heard referring to Cheema, has intensified the political confrontation. Addressing party workers before the march, Pilot said the Congress had “no personal enmity” with Cheema but questioned why an FIR had not been registered when a dying declaration allegedly named the minister. “We have no personal enmity with Cheema sahib. But you are sitting in office, you are the finance minister. A man is taking his life and making a video saying that ‘I am taking my own life because of this person’. Does the law not say that there should be an investigation, there should be an FIR?” Pilot said. Taking a swipe at AAP’s promise of empowering Dalits, Pilot said the party had announced a deputy chief minister from the Scheduled Caste before forming the government but had failed to protect vulnerable community in the state. “What to speak of a Dalit deputy CM, Dalits like Gulzar Singh are forced to commit suicide under the AAP regime,” he said. Pilot said Gulzar Singh’s death reflected the gap between the AAP government’s claims and the situation on the ground, alleging that a poor Dalit man had paid with his life after raising questions about the availability of drugs that had affected his son. He also reminded AAP of its national convenor Arvind Kejriwal ’s election promise that drugs would be eliminated within three months of the party coming to power, saying that more than four years into the government’s tenure, the drug menace had only worsened. “Today, ‘chitta’ (synthetic drugs) is being delivered home. You make a phone call and it is reaching every home,” Pilot alleged. The Congress demanded Cheema’s removal as well as an independent probe into Gulzar Singh’s death. Warring, Bajwa and former chief minister Charanjit Singh Channi accused the Mann government of being the “worst ever” in Punjab and described Bhagwant Mann as the state’s “most disastrous” chief minister. Warring, who welcomed Pilot to Punjab by showering flower petals on his arrival, said the mobilisation for the protest demonstrated the Congress’s intent to take on the AAP government ahead of the 2027 Assembly elections. Pilot assured party workers that the Congress leadership would remain at the forefront of the campaign for justice in the case. The protest marked Pilot’s first major political programme in Punjab since being appointed the party’s state in-charge and came amid the Congress’s attempts to sharpen its attack on the AAP government ahead of the Assembly polls. Among those present included Congress Legislature Party leader Partap Singh Bajwa, former Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Chanii, MP Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa, Brahm Mohindra, Vijay Inder Singla, Rana KP Singh, Dr Amar Singh, Rana Gurjeet Singh, Gurjeet Singh Aujla, Bharat Bhushan Ashu, Dr Raj Kumar Verka, Sukhvinder Danny, Sangat Singh Gilzian, Kuljit Singh Nagra, Amarpreet Lally, Lakhvir Singh Lakha, Balbir Singh Sidhu, Amit Vij, Pawan Adia, Sukhbinder Singh Sarkaria, Inderbir Bolaria, Gurkirat Singh Kotli, Baljit Kaur and others.
