Congress MP from Gurdaspur Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa’s meeting with Union Home Minister Amit Shah at Kartavya Bhavan in Delhi on Friday created buzz in political circles.
The meeting took place in the backdrop of growing resentment in Punjab Congress over the recent organisational reshuffle in the PPCC — where Amrinder Raja Warring has been retained as the PPCC chief and Partap Bajwa as CLP leader.
As Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa was meeting Amit Shah, disgruntled Punjab Congress leaders had gathered at the residence of former CM Charanjit Channi against the continuation of Warring as the PPCC chief. Former CM Channi, who heads the Campaign Committee, is not happy with the appointment
Political observers had speculated that the meeting could be linked to reported discontent within the state unit following the appointments. Randhawa, however, made it clear that the discussion was strictly confined to administrative and security issues.
Randhawa went on to strongly refute attempts by certain sections of the media to give a political colour to the meeting. “It had nothing to do with politics. Any attempt to politicise a genuine concern regarding the safety and security of Punjabis is unfortunate,” he stated.
He said the pre-scheduled meeting, focused on the deteriorating law and order situation in Punjab, particularly issues related to border security, extortion and gangster threats.
Randhawa clarified that the meeting had no political undertones and was held solely to apprise the Home Minister of the ground situation in the state.
The Gurdaspur MP emphasised the need for greater involvement of central agencies such as the Intelligence Bureau (IB), Military Intelligence (MI), Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) and the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to tackle the prevailing challenges.
