‘The devil is quoting from scriptures, but Bhagwant Mann should go all out and unravel the system that Amarinder Singh accuses him of not understanding.’

LAUNCHING A DIRECT attack on senior BJP leader and former chief minister Captain Amarinder Singh over his links with gangster-politician Mukhtar Ansari, former Deputy Speaker of Punjab Vidhan Sabha Bir Devinder Singh said Amarinder was beholden to the gangster because his son Abbas Ansari had helped Raninder Singh win various elections of the National Rifle Association of India.

“It is strange that the only reason Mukhtar Ansari ended up living a cushioned life in Punjab’s jails was because Amarinder Singh’s son, Raninder Singh, was interested in remaining office bearer in the sport’s top management in India,” Bir Devinder said in response to Amarinder Singh’s claims that Mukhtar Ansari was brought to Punjab because of crimes he committed in this state.

Captain Singh and Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann had recently clashed over Mukhtar Ansari’s stint in Punjab jails after Mann refused to clear payments of a whopping Rs 55 lakh to lawyers engaged by the Amarinder Singh government.

“I would urge CM Bhagwant Mann to immediately order an investigation, preferably monitored by the High Court, to unearth the nexus between Capt. Amarinder Singh, his son Raninder Singh, gangster-turned-politician Mukhtar Ansari and his son Abbas. It will lead to the exposure of strange liaisons between the tug-of-war for control of National Rifle Association of India and Ansari’s stay in Punjab’s jails,” Bir Devinder Singh said.

He said it was ironical that today, Amarinder Singh finds himself in the same BJP, the party of Yogi Adityanath, from whom Mukhtar Ansari perceived a threat to his life and wanted to be shifted to Punjab. “Seize the lesser devil by the tail and he would lead you to his superior,” Bir Devinder Singh advised CM Mann.

Broadening the attack on Amarinder Singh, Bir Devinder Singh said it was well known that Amarinder Singh operated via parallel private power centers, thus destroying institutional mechanisms, bureaucratic hierarchy and legally-sanctioned autonomy of various branches of governance.

“It is laughable that Captain Singh is today telling Bhagwant Mann that the CM does not understand the system. What was Amarinder’s own system? Aroosa Alam, perhaps Pakistan’s most famous journalist (though not for journalism), was one power center operating from ‘Siswan Farms’ where top police officers and administration babus used to pay obeisance.

Bharat Inder Singh Chahal, the most intellectual friend of Captain Singh, was yet another power center, remarkably successful at clinching deals via pliable Vigilance Bureau bosses. A grandson and few of his cronies had mastered the art of interfering in and influencing decision-making and dishing out lucrative deals to friends in exchange of moolah,” he said.

“So, Aroosa-BIS-corrupt VB officers-supine friends in media and massive ill-begotten wealth was the system Amarinder Singh presided over. This is the system he wants the successor Chief ministers to learn. Bhagwant Mann can be successful by following Captain Amarinder Singh’s advice, or he can succeed by following my advice and launch a probe into the murky deals,” Bir Devinder said.

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He said Punjab’s senior journalists know whether or not it is true that the Vigilance Bureau in those days directly reported to Super-CM called BIS Chahal.

“A government which has come to power on the slogan of cleaning the cobwebs should do exactly that. If the probe gets underway, you will find even former Jails Minister Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa caught in the spider’s net. He cannot claim innocence. Randhawa has visited many jails for inspection, but a probe will give him an inside view — he will definitely land up behind bars,” Bir Devinder chuckled.

He said while Punjab eventually might have to pay Rs 55 lakh to Supreme Court Senior Advocate Dushyant Dave, who was engaged by the Amarinder Singh government to defend Mukhtar Ansari, Amarinder’s coffers are the right source where that money should come from.

Gangster Ansari landed in Punjab’s Ropar jail from UP after a concocted extortion call. The entire episode must be probed with clinical precision. Why did the investigation and prosecution agencies not pursue the case, as narrated in the FIR and warranted by law, for more than two years?

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Also, why were things moving at a notoriously slow pace? All these questions are begging for answers, and the probe will reveal Amarinder’s beloved system, as also the system of his beloved journalist.

“Punjab has suffered because of Amarinder’s mis-governance and miss-governance. Both need investigation,” he said.

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