Chandigarh: Congress MP Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa on Tuesday questioned the BJP’s ‘Nasha Mukt Punjab Yatra’ and Punjab’s deteriorating law-and-order situation.The Lok Sabha member from Gurdaspur said the BJP’s ‘Nasha Mukt Punjab Yatra’ was a “complete failure”. Questioning the campaign, Randhawa said that the BJP should first look at the response to its own yatra.The former deputy chief minister of Punjab said Pathankot, where the ‘Nasha Mukt Yatra’ was launched, is considered a BJP stronghold. Yet, even in the two assembly constituencies of Pathankot and Sujanpur, the BJP failed to mobilise a significant crowd during the yatra, he said.Even at the launch venue, the gathering did not cross the 3,000 mark. This clearly reflects how the people of Punjab view the BJP’s campaign, Randhawa added.The senior Congress functionary said that the drug problem in Punjab was serious and instead of politicising the issue, the Centre and the Punjab govt must work together and take concrete action.Randhawa said that he had written several letters to Union home minister Amit Shah regarding drugs, gangsterism, cross-border drone activities and the smuggling of weapons, but no concrete response or action had emerged so far.If Union home minister Amit Shah is visiting Punjab, he should not restrict his visit to political programmes but also answer serious security questions concerning the state, he said.Regarding the recent developments at Lovely Professional University (LPU), Randhawa said the police should have acted in time.He said the protests continued for several days, affecting the National Highway, but the police failed to take effective action promptly.The law-and-order situation in Punjab is a matter of concern. Whether it is Chitkara University, LPU, or any other district of Punjab, questions are being raised over law and order. Police must act promptly in such situations to prevent circumstances from escalating, he said.
