The Aam Aadmi Party government in Punjab is facing a widening Opposition offensive, with political rivals targeting it over the drug menace, corruption allegations, education, law and order, and the handling of protests. The latest flashpoint is education, after AAP’s Maur MLA Sukhveer Singh Maiserkhana publicly raised questions over teacher shortages in government schools and was subsequently suspended by the party for alleged indiscipline and anti-party activities.
The latest flashpoint is education, after AAP’s Maur MLA Sukhveer Singh Maiserkhana publicly raised questions over teacher shortages in government schools and was subsequently suspended by the party for alleged indiscipline and anti-party activities.
In a video, Mau MLA Maiserkhana raised concerns over staff shortages in government schools, including a School of Eminence, and questioned the government’s claims. Punjab Congress president Pargat Singh hit out at the AAP government, saying the episode had exposed the gap between its claims and the ground reality. BJP leader Ravneet Singh Bittu also targeted the government, questioning whether ordinary parents and teachers could expect to be heard if even an AAP MLA’s concerns were not addressed. “If the Chief Minister does not have the time to listen to the grievances of his own MLAs, how can ordinary parents, teachers and students in Punjab expect him to hear them out? Before education emerged as the latest flashpoint, the drug menace had become one of the biggest political battlegrounds in Punjab.
The BJP’s statewide ‘Nasha Mukt Punjab Yatra’ covered all 117 constituencies, with Union Home Minister Amit Shah making drug eradication a central theme of his Jalandhar rally. Shah accused the state government of failing to tackle the drug menace and promised that a BJP government would make Punjab drug-free by December 31, 2029.
The controversy has handed the BJP and Congress fresh ammunition to question AAP’s much-publicised “education revolution”. “The AAP MLA himself has exposed AAP’s authoritarianism and the falsehood of its much-publicised education revolution,” Pargat Singh said. Bittu said.
