Spokesperson: Colonel (Retd) Rohit Chaudhary, Shri Alok Sharma and Colonel (Retd) Pramod Kumar Sharma: Colonel (Retd) Rohit Chaudhary said, Friends, this is a very serious issue, a matter of grief, a matter of trouble and a very sensitive matter that in our Patiala, a serving colonel... Colonel Pushpendra Baath and his son were brutally beaten up by the khaki uniform of the police... the police, whose job is to provide protection to the world, to provide protection to every citizen, 12 of its officers, brutally beat up a serving colonel, his arm was broken, the kind of incident that happened, FIR was not filed for four days, time was not given to meet the SP.

Do you want to scare us? Do you want to scare the army men! The army men who fight on the borders with the trust and blessings of 140 crore Indians, protect the borders, stand there only for the Constitution, to protect the tricolour and are ready to sacrifice their lives! Can these 10-12 inspectors or jawans of Punjab Police scare such an army man? These 12 goons in khaki uniform... I would not like to speak for the policemen, but I would like to say specifically for these 12 people that the kind of situation of hooliganism they created there, no army man is scared of them, nor will he be scared.

We are bound by the Constitution, our fundamental rights have been curbed, we cannot go into any political areas, we cannot express our views on any platform, the Army Act, Army Rules do not allow us, but the entire country, 140 crore people and our ex-servicemen organizations, all of them came forward. There are 142 organizations that contacted us and said that you should express this on your platform.

So, friends, these were some things. To talk about the context of Punjab, I mostly ask my brother Alok Sharma ji, he should say, then after that I will sum up and tell you that this trend is going on in the country in this way and such things have happened in many places. So Alok Sharma ji, first you present your views.

Shri Alok Sharma said- Friends, just a few days ago, the Punjab government completed three years and big full-page advertisements were given that Bhagwant Mann’s government has created Rangila Punjab. But unfortunately, the Congress used to give the slogan- ‘Jai Jawan, Jai Kisan’, today the slogan being used in Punjab is- ‘kill the jawan and kill the kisan’. Today, the slogan of the Punjab government, Bhagwant Mann’s government and the police is- ‘kill the jawan and kill the kisan’.

Punjab has completely turned into a goonda raj, a police state in the last three years. As Colonel sahab told that it is a bordering state and in matters of intelligence, both the police and the army work together. Today, if we see the kind of difference between the police and the army personnel that is being seen in the whole country and the episode of Punjab that has just come in front of you, then we need to go into its history a little.

This incident happens on the night of 13th and 14th. The Dhaba owner is made the complainant, and it takes three days to file an FIR based on that. At 1 o’clock, Colonel Bath goes to the hospital and at 6 o’clock in the morning, he is plastered. The government says that we have improved the medical facilities, opened mohalla clinics and the Farjiwalas talk about what nonsense, only God knows it all. The situation is such that Colonel sahab’s hand breaks, because it has to be shown as a minor injury so that no one is charged under section 307. The first FIR is filed against completely unknown people, that too after two days. After that, the whole matter comes in front of the country through the media and CCTV footage. The situation is such that today the police has completely spread goonda raj in Punjab.

It is unfortunate that we did not get to see any statement from the Chief Minister of the state, who is also the Home Minister, Bhagwant Mann ji. Such a big episode happened, there are 7 to 8 lakh retired and in-service defense personnel in Punjab alone, the number is much higher in the whole country. But shouldn’t the Chief Minister apologize to all the soldiers? The FIR was delayed under pressure from the SSP and SSP Nanak Singh is still sitting there. He is named after Nanak Baba, and you people are seeing what his deeds are like.

First of all, the Congress Party supports all the protests being held in Punjab today and many of our ex-servicemen are participating in all those protests. We are fully standing with the Indian Army there. Our first demand is that a judicial inquiry should be conducted under a retired judge, be it from the High Court, time-bound. It should not be the way it has been seen in the last one week - the police have taken care of it till now. The investigation is also being done by the police, there is also tampering with the evidence, there are two FIRs.

Our Leader of Opposition Shri Rahul Gandhi has repeatedly said, and has also raised the issue in Parliament, that the specific issues behind the violence in Manipur have also been raised repeatedly, but till date the BJP government, the BJP government at the Centre has maintained silence. After that, on August 11, 2024, in Jaipur, one of our Para Commando soldiers, who was also a part of the surgical strike, who went inside Pakistan, went to the enemy’s territory, operated 10-10, 15-15, 20-20 kilometres inside, was stripped naked and beaten up in a naked state inside a police station in Jaipur by police goons... this is absolutely unacceptable. Saturday, March 22, 2025