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."
Earlier in the day, the court deferred hearing in Sisodia's bail application for March 21, in the same case being probed by the CBI. Special CBI Judge M.K. Nagpal of the Rouse Avenue Courts has ordered Sisodia to be produced before court on March 17 at 2 p.m.
The Border Security Force (BSF) on Friday recovered an AK series rifle along with two magazines and 40 rounds of ammunition from a field in Gurdaspur sector after shooting down a drone. During the search, BSF troops found a hexacopter along with the weapon and ammunition.
The Chief Minister said the government has so far given 26,797 jobs to youth, adding that the budget stipulates to regularly recruit and create an ecosystem for private jobs for Punjabis to check brain drain.
The Tihar authorities said that Sisodia will remain in jail. The senior Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader has been arrested a day before the hearing on his bail plea in the matter.
The resolution was moved by MLA Charanjit Singh during the ongoing budget session of the Assembly here. After the reply by Health and Family Welfare Minister Balbir Singh, all members present in the House passed the non-official resolution to recommend this matter to the Central government.
The Indian Army has recently cleared 108 vacancies for women officers to take command of independent units in the Corps of Engineers, Ordinance, EME and other branches following which Col Geeta Rana took charge of the EME unit. Women officers will now be able to command many different units of the army.
