Chandigarh: The ongoing row between ruling Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and the opposition parties in Punjab over the alleged remarks of Atishi Marlena - AAP legislator and the leader of Opposition in Delhi assembly – on Sikh Gurus, flared up with both sides staging protests against each other across Punjab on Saturday.
AAP Claims Video Was Doctored
While the AAP, which claimed that the said video of Atishi was ``doctored’’, held protests against Congress leaders and also outside Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) chief Sukhbir Badal’s residence at Badal village in Muktsar, the SAD leaders held protest outside Bathinda district administrative complex and some other places against AAP and former AAP Delhi chief minister Atishi for her alleged derogatory remarks against Guru Tegh Bahadur in Delhi assembly.
Meanwhile, while BJP leaders also held protests against the AAP and Atishi, the party state chief Sunil Jakhar said that although the clarification issued by former Delhi chief minister Atishi regarding her video itself looks like an admission of guilt, the Punjab police conducted a forensic examination of her video within a day and gave her a clean chit.
BJP Chief Demands Probe
He challenged Punjab chief minister Bhagwant Mann to either resign from his post or immediately get the investigation conducted into the video related to alleged religious sacrilege circulating about him, and prove himself completely innocent. He said that ``if a video related to Atishi can be investigated within a day, then the video related to the chief minister can also certainly be investigated within a day’’.
Meanwhile, it may be recalled that an FIR was registered on the complaint of one Iqbal Singh in Jalandhar on Friday alleging deliberate doctoring of the video and that Atishi had not uttered the word ``gurus’’.
For record, the Delhi assembly has also asked the Punjab Director General of Police (DGP) and the commissioner of Jalandhar to explain to it by January 12 why it intervened into the matter when the proceedings of the assembly are privileged and the property of the assembly.