A political storm is brewing in Punjab over Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann's announcement of a sweeping crackdown on stray dogs, an initiative he says is rooted in a recent Supreme Court ruling, but one that Rajya Sabha MP Swati Maliwal has called "illegal, inhumane, and shameful."
It started when Mann took to X earlier this week, announcing that the Punjab government would launch a "massive campaign" to eliminate stray and so-called "killer dogs" that he claimed were endangering the lives of children and pedestrians across the state. He thanked the Supreme Court for the order that, in his words, gave the green light for this action.
But Maliwal, never one to hold back, fired back almost immediately, accusing the Chief Minister of misrepresenting the court's order entirely. "The Supreme Court's order nowhere allows mass elimination of dogs," she wrote bluntly, adding that Mann appeared to have posted his tweet "when he was not in his senses, which is not unusual for him."
Maliwal drew a sharp contrast between the state's priorities, pointing out that drug mafias, gangsters, and criminals continue to operate with alarming freedom in Punjab, while the government appears to have found urgency in going after stray animals.
Earlier today, Mann appeared to course-correct, at least in tone. In a more measured follow-up post, the Chief Minister laid out a clearer picture of what the government actually intends to do. He said stray dogs would be removed from high-footfall public spaces, and that adequate shelter facilities would be created and maintained for their proper care. On the more sensitive question of euthanasia, Mann stressed it would only apply in legally defined cases, rabid dogs, those who are incurably ill, or those demonstrably aggressive and posing a direct threat to human life, and strictly in accordance with the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act and the Animal Birth Control (ABC) Rules.
