Chandigarh, November 5 : Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader and Sangrur MP Bhagwant Mann’s tryst with what clearly seems to be drunken misbehaviour seemed to be continuing, sparing not even the somber occasion of a funeral.
Mann was on Friday forced by the family of singer Manmeet Singh, who was burnt to death in Australia some days back, to leave their home in Sangrur after he persistently misbehaved with them as well as the mediapersons present there.
A video that went viral on the social media soon after clearly showed that the AAP leader was neither stable nor in his senses. Stumbling and slurring as he spoke to the media, Mann appeared to be under the influence of alcohol, as he is increasingly prone to be. Media reports on Saturday morning also described in considerable detail Mann’s abhorrent behaviour, and that too at such a solemn occasion, the Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee (PPCC) said in a statement issued here.
The statement added that misbehaving under the influence of alcohol seemed to be becoming a habit with Mann, who just did not deserve to be taken seriously as a politician and candidate for the upcoming Assembly elections.
Apart from forcibly intruding into deceased Manmeet’s family matters, Mann appeared to have stumbled on his way out of the house, the PPCC leaders pointed out citing media reports. This seemed to indicate that, once again, Mann had publicly made a fool of himself, probably in an inebriated state. The video, they said, also clearly showed that Mann was not in his control – the only reasonable explanation for which seemed to be that he was drunk.
Considering that this was not the first time Mann had been in such an embarrassing situation, PPCC leaders Kewal Singh Dhillon, Mohd. Sadique and Harchand Kaur said this reflected the level of the AAP leadership. The AAP leadership has absolutely no credentials that it can stake claim to, they added.
Just about a year ago, Mann was forced to leave the bhog ceremony of two men killed in police firing after he was allegedly found drunk by a former granthi. Earlier this year, his colleague in Parliament had gone so far as to ask the Speaker to change his seat because he found Mann coming to the House in drunken stupour. In his request to the Speaker, AAP’s Harinder Singh Khalsa said, “It is torturous to sit next to a drunk Mann….I am a Sikh who comes to Parliament after performing prayer. It hurts my religious sentiments to smell liquor from the adjoining seat. I feel nauseating.”
Mann’s clashes with the media are also quite notorious, the PPCC leaders pointed out, referring to the way he shouted and pointed at mediapersons at Manmeet’s house on Friday, and also his clash with the media in September 2016, when he instigated his party volunteers to thrown media people out of a rally venue in Fatehgarh Sahib. The party volunteers had then manhandled journalists and tried to snatch their cameras.
The PPCC leaders said Mann’s obnoxious behavior underlined the paucity of serious leaders in AAP, which was now eying Punjab for unleashing its vested political agenda after having made a mess of things in Delhi.