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."
Mishra, who was arrested by the Delhi Police from Bengaluru on January 7 for allegedly urinating on a 70-year-old woman while in a drunken state on a flight last November, was granted bail on January 31 by national capital's Patiala House Court.
NCB Deputy Director General Gyaneshwar Singh said the woman was identified as Syeeda Abida. She had plans to travel from Delhi to Doha by a Qatar Airline flight but was apprehended at IGI Airport on March 10.
The two sessions of G20 are slated to be held in the state on March 15-17 and March 19-20. The first one is the second G20 Education Working Group Meeting, while the second is a two-day Labour 20 (L20) meeting.
On January 25, the Supreme Court granted interim bail for eight weeks to Ashish Mishra and directed him to leave Uttar Pradesh within one week of his release from jail. A bench comprising Justices Surya Kant and J.K. Maheshwari directed the sessions judge dealing with the trial of the case to keep apprising it about the future developments of the trial.
Badal was reacting to media reports, which quoted the Punjabi University Vice-Chancellor as saying that the varsity is facing a "dark future" and demanded that the budgetary grant should be over Rs 300 crore. "The university is already under a debt of Rs 150 crore and is not in a position to pay salaries on time," Vice-Chancellor Professor Arvind has said.
Announcing this here, SAD spokesman Daljit Singh Cheema said a decision to this effect had been taken under the leadership of party President Sukhbir Badal following a meeting with constituency in-charges and senior BSP leadership.
