With the rapper’s father, Balkaur Singh Sidhu, on stage, Congress MP Rahul Gandhi slammed the AAP government for withdrawing his security days before he was ambushed and killed by the gang armed with automatic rifles. The name of singer-songwriter Sidhu Moosewala, who was assassinated by the Lawrence Bishnoi gang in 2022 in Punjab’s Mansa, cropped up at a Congress rally in Sangrur to highlight the alleged breakdown of law and order under Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann’s rule.
Gandhi, who formally launched the Congress campaign in Punjab, recalled his meeting with the singer before his entry into the Congress and said he had seen a dynamic and talented young man who wanted to contribute to Punjab and the country. Moosewala contested and lost the assembly elections on a Congress ticket from Mansa, his native town. He added that he had also felt the need to offer him political protection, although not physical protection.
Because he believed the young singer deserved an opportunity to serve society through politics, gandhi said he had facilitated Moosewala’s entry into the Congress.
Recounting the sequence of events leading to the singer’s murder, the Congress MP alleged that Moosewala began receiving threats after their interactions and that his security was subsequently withdrawn. “Then, one day, I witnessed it, right before everyone’s eyes: his security was withdrawn. The Congress leader’s reference to the withdrawal of security and the subsequent killing brought the issue of Moosewala’s murder to the centre of his political attack on the state government.
In full view of Punjab and the entire nation, he was murdered in broad daylight in Punjab, gunned down while in his car,” he said.
