ON HIS first visit to Punjab after being appointed Congress's AICC general secretary in-charge of the state, Sachin Pilot on Tuesday turned a Dalit man's suicide into a political siege of the AAP government.
Leading hundreds of party workers towards the official residence of Finance Minister Harpal Singh Cheema, Pilot demanded his resignation and an FIR for abetment to suicide over the death of daily wage labourer Gulzar Singh. The march, however, was stopped by heavy police deployment. Chandigarh Police used water cannons as protesters tried to cross barricades, with several Congress leaders, including former MLA Kuljit Singh Nagra, sustaining injuries. Punjab Congress president Amarinder Singh Raja Warring, Leader of Opposition Partap Singh Bajwa and other senior leaders were detained.
Congress alleges Gulzar Singh, from Dirba in Sangrur district, was driven to suicide after being harassed and subjected to casteist slurs for questioning Cheema over availability of drugs in his area. Singh died on September 7 after allegedly consuming poison.
"We have no personal enmity with Cheema but... you are sitting in office, you are the finance minister. A man is taking his life and making a video saying that 'I am taking my own life because of this person'. Does the law not say there should be an investigation, there should be an FIR?" Pilot said.
Taking a swipe at AAP's promise of empowering Dalits, Pilot said the party had announced a Deputy CM from the Scheduled Caste before forming the government but had failed to protect the vulnerable community. "What to speak of a Dalit Deputy CM, Dalits like Gulzar Singh are forced to die by suicide under the AAP regime," he said.
He reminded AAP of its national convenor Arvind Kejriwal's election promise that drugs would be eliminated within three months. "Today, 'chitta' (synthetic drugs) is being delivered home. You make a phone call and it is reaching every home," Pilot alleged.
Pilot's choice of issue is deliberate. Congress, out of power in Punjab since 2022, needs a Dalit-tribal narrative to counter AAP's welfare pitch. By linking a single suicide to the larger drugs menace — AAP's original poll plank — Pilot flips AAP's morality tale. The fact that a dying declaration allegedly named a sitting minister and no FIR was registered gives Congress a legal hook, but also shows how Punjab's drug politics has moved from smuggling to doorstep delivery. For Pilot, known as a Rajasthan face, this is also a debut as Punjab in-charge — water cannons and detentions are useful optics to show he can street-fight.