A week after the alleged security breach during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s trip in Ferozepur in poll-bound Punjab, Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan alleged that the incident was “not a coincidence but a murderous conspiracy”.
Addressing a press conference in Bhopal on Wednesday, Chouhan referred to details of a sting operation by a TV channel to allege that the breach was 'not spontaneous but sponsored'. He said that the incident of security breach on January 5 was witnessed by the entire country and the attitude of Congress towards it was completely irresponsible.
He also posed a string of questions to Congress president Sonia Gandhi seeking her response.
Chouhan's allegations come on the same day when Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and Assam CM Himanta Biswa Sarma also hurled similar accusations at the Congress and its government in Punjab.
During the press conference, Chouhan said that Sonia Gandhi should respond as to why Punjab police was a silent witness when there was a breach in security of the country's PM. “How could demonstrators act arbitrarily on the road on which the PM convoy was to pass? It has also been proven that the Channi government in Punjab had ordered the police not to act against the demonstrators,” Chouhan alleged.
He also posed questions like why CM Channi was not picking up the phone after the incident.
Chouhan said that the Punjab government indulged in a despicable act at the instance of the Gandhi family and played a joke with the PM's protocol. “Hatred for Modiji has killed the soul of the Congress, but the murderous conspiracy of the Congress is being exposed.” He also condemned the callous attitude and comments of various Congress leaders towards the incident.
Responding to the allegations, ex-chief minister and MP Congress chief Kamal Nath said that Chouhan was levelling false charges against the Congress. He said that the SC has already constituted a five-member probe panel headed by an ex-judge of the Supreme Court to look into the matter and has also stayed the separate probes by Union and Punjab governments. “MP CM Shivraj Singh is merely politicising the issue. If he has some evidence regarding the Punjab incident, he should appear before the probe committee and put the evidence before it. Making allegations merely on the basis of media reports, when a SC-monitored probe is on, is improper.” He added that Chouhan should wait for the probe report, but said, it seems that the MP CM was desperate to save his chair.
