Navjot Sidhu threatens hunger strike if Punjab doesn’t make reports on drug abuse, sacrilege public

Congress’ Punjab unit chief Navjot Singh Sidhu on Thursday threatened to go on a hunger strike if the state government did not publicly release reports on drug abuse and the 2015 case related to sacrilege of the Guru Granth Sahib, NDTV reported.

He made the statement while addressing a meeting of Congress members in Moga city

Sidhu noted that the Congress came to power in the state by promising the eradication of drugs.

“But if the government does not open the drug reports, I will go on a hunger strike,” the Congress leader said. “We need to show why the previous chief minister [Amarinder Singh] sat on these reports.”

The sacrilege case that Sidhu mentioned is related to the desecration of the Guru Granth Sahib, the holy text of the Sikhs, in Punjab’s Bargari town in 2015. Two people were killed and 60 injured in police firing during protests against the incident.

The Punjab Congress chief also said that if the state government could get rid of its debts to a large extent if it nixed the sand and liquor mafia, ANI reported. He added that if the Punjab government does not take action, he will continue to raise his voice.

On October 15, the Sidhu had listed tackling the drug menace and delivering justice in sacrilege incidents among 13 matters that he said the state government should address ahead of the Assembly elections next year. He listed these matters in a letter to Congress chief Sonia Gandhi.

On Thursday, Sidhu also hit out at Aam Aadmi Party chief Arvind Kejriwal, saying that people of Punjab wanted someone from the state to be the chief minister.

Sidhu made the statement two days after Kejriwal said at a press conference that the Congress was suppressing the voice of the party’s Punjab unit chief. Kejriwal said that Sidhu had exposed the false promises made by Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi about having ended the sand mafia.