Chandigarh: The BJP on Saturday hit back at Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann on the issue of deportees, accusing the AAP leader of playing politics over the matter. The second batch of 119 illegal immigrants from the US is expected to land at the Amritsar airport late on Saturday evening. On Friday, Mann accused the Centre of trying to defame Punjab as part of a conspiracy by choosing the Amritsar airport for the landing of the aircraft. Hitting back at Mann, BJP leader Tarun Chugh said on Saturday, “Bhagwant Mann sahab, people of Punjab want to know how the innocent youths went out, why they had to go, who were those who spoiled their lives. Why they had to go adopting illegal routes, who sent them, and who were the fraudulent agents who spoiled their lives.” “The youths were forced to sell their land, houses. Rather than catching the culprits and acting against those who spoiled the lives of these youths, the ‘AAP-da’ party leader is doing politics over the issue,” Chugh, who is also BJP’s general secretary, said.
BJP’s national spokesperson R P Singh also took a dig at Mann, and told him to stop politicising the issue.
“Amritsar is the closest international airport for flights entering India from the US. That’s why the plane carrying illegal immigrants is landing there. Stop politicising the issue and promoting conspiracy theories due to your lack of knowledge.@BhagwantMann,” Singh said in a post on X. “Rather than giving jobs in Punjab, the ‘AAP-da’ party has only given deteriorating law and order. Ransom has emerged as the new industry. Rather than giving employment, the industry, farming, and service sectors are moving in back gear,” Chugh said. “The Mann government has been in place for the past three years but it has failed to rein in fraudulent travel agents,” he added.
Chugh also said the lives of Punjab’s youth has been spoiled but “Mann is busy in marking his presence before Arvind Kejriwal in Delhi”.
“The time he spent in pleasing his political bosses, had he devoted the same in breaking this nexus of fraudulent agents, the youth would have been saved from this plight,” the BJP leader said.
Chugh also alleged that the AAP government has no policy for the youth, whom they have failed on all fronts.
The flight from the US is expected to land at the Amritsar airport around 10 pm on Saturday, official sources said. Among the 119 deportees, 100 are from Punjab and Haryana alone.
While 67 are from Punjab, 33 are from Haryana, eight from Gujarat, three from Uttar Pradesh, two each from Goa, Maharashtra and Rajasthan, and one each from Himachal Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir.
The second batch of illegal Indian immigrants includes four women and two minors, including a six-year-old girl. Most of the deportees are in the age group of 18 to 30, sources said.
A third plane carrying 157 deportees is also expected to land on February 16, they said.
On February 5, a US military aircraft carrying 104 illegal Indian immigrants landed at the Amritsar airport. Of them, 33 each were from Haryana and Gujarat, and 30 from Punjab.
Mann on Friday questioned the move to land another plane at the Amritsar airport, as he accused the Centre of trying to defame Punjab as part of a conspiracy.
“The BJP-led Centre always discriminates against Punjab. It does not let go of any chance of defaming the state,” Mann said while addressing the media in Amritsar.
“As part of a conspiracy, they are trying to defame Punjab and Punjabis,” he said.
Mann also asked the Centre under which criteria the Amritsar airport was chosen to land the second aircraft.
“What is the criterion for choosing Amritsar? The Centre and the Ministry of External Affairs should tell me. Why did you choose Amritsar and not the national capital? You did this to defame Punjab and Punjabis,” Mann said.
Noting that deportation is a national issue, Mann said it is being made to appear that only Punjabis migrate illegally.