Opposition: Dismiss DGP Gupta or will stall Assembly

Chandigarh, February 22

Various political parties and Sikh organisations today sought the dismissal of Punjab DGP Dinkar Gupta for claiming in an interview that any visitor to Kartarpur Sahib in Pakistan could be radicalised in a day.

The SAD and AAP have threatened to stall Assembly proceedings on Monday, if the DGP is not removed by then. The SAD (Taksali), Apna Punjab Party and SGPC have sought a case against the officer for ‘hurting religious sentiments.’ Akali Dal leader Bikram Singh Majithia accused Gupta of becoming a party to a “deep-rooted conspiracy to paint Sikhs as terrorists.”

He alleged the DGP had been handpicked owing to his eight-year stint in the IB during the UPA rule when he had “thwarted opening of the Kartarpur corridor.”

He said the remark that a Sikh devotee going to pay obeisance at Kartarpur Sahib in Pakistan could turn into a terrorist was an insult to the comunity. Majithia asked the DGP to explain how many Sikhs of the 50,000 who had visited Kartarpur Sahib so far, including the CM, his Cabinet colleagues and senior political leaders, had been “imparted training in Pakistan in less than a day.”

Bir Devinder Singh of SAD (Taksali) said the DGP’s assumed arguments was an assault on the integrity of the Sikhs. DSGMC president Manjinder Singh Sirsa demanded that the CM

rendered an apology for the “conduct” of the DGP and initiate action against him. The SAD (Delhi) too wanted the officer sacked.— TNS