Punjab CM Slams BJP: Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann slammed the Centre on Saturday for choosing Amritsar to land US military aircraft carrying illegal immigrants, claiming that ‘it is a conspiracy to portray that only Punjabis are illegal migrants’. He also insisted that future planes land in New Delhi or another city instead.
On Saturday, a military flight will arrive in Amritsar, India, to deport 119 people who were illegally present in the United States. Earlier this month, a US military plane carrying 104 illegal immigrants from various states landed in Amritsar, the first such batch of Indians deported by the Trump government as part of a crackdown against illegal immigration.
Mann responded to the update, saying, as reported by ANI, “There is a conspiracy to defame Punjab and Punjabis…” The first plane landed in Amritsar. Now, a second plane (carrying Indian citizens who allegedly illegally migrated to the United States) will land here. The MEA should clarify the criteria used to select Amritsar as the landing destination for the aircraft.
BJP versus Punjab CM
Bharatiya Janata Party leaders promptly retaliated against the Punjab CM, asking him to “avoid doing politics on such sensitive issues”. Praveen Khandelwal, a BJP MP, claimed that Arvind Kejriwal-led Aam Aadmi Party leaders “do not care about the country’s security.” “They only do politics.”
BJP MLA Manjinder Singh Sirsa claimed that travel agencies plundered Punjab’s youth, forcing them to sell their properties in order to travel to America and that these agents sent them there illegally.
He also blasted the Bhagwant Mann-led Punjab administration and the state police for accepting money from travel agents despite knowing about their actions. “How can such travel agents thrive? They made thousands of people unemployed…AAP should consider how they wrecked Punjab. “They said people would leave everything (in the US) and go back to Punjab, but they are selling their lands to leave Punjab, and the AAP is still creating drama,” Sirsa remarked.
According to Fatehjung Singh Bajwa, deputy president of the saffron party’s Punjab section, CM Mann is “degrading his own state”. He observed that the majority of the 67 people who will be returning in the second batch of deported Indian immigrants are from Punjab and that politicizing the issue will only harm the state’s image.
Backfire from Centre
Kanwar Sandhu, a senior journalist and political analyst, questioned the logic of the move, noting that flights should ideally land in Delhi. “First, it must be determined whether the second batch of deportees is processed in the same manner as the first. Ideally, the jet should arrive in Delhi because the flight path indicates that it passed through the south and carried deportees from various states, not just Punjab. Sandhu added that it should only land in Amritsar if the majority of the deportees are from Punjab.
Sunil Jakhar, the BJP Punjab chief, dismissed the criticism as an unneeded dispute. “The opponents are exaggerating a minor issue. They are all Indian deportees. The issue is not with the plane landing in Amritsar. This is a humanitarian concern. Rather than politicizing it, we need to go inward to understand why people are taking risks on unauthorized routes. Political parties must collaborate to address this issue. I am sure the Prime Minister discussed the treatment of deportees with US President Donald Trump,” Jakhar added.
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