When the first US military plane carrying 104 deportees landed in Amritsar on February 5, there was outrage after the visuals went viral that they (the deportees) were shackled and handcuffed during the flight. There were some random social media posts also which questioned the logic behind making the plane land in Amritsar instead of some other place like Delhi or Ahmedabad.
The ruling Aam Aadmi Party took the queue from social media and questioned the motive behind making the plane land in Amritsar. The logic offered was that there were more deportees from other states and less from Punjab. Of the 104 deportees in the first plane, 33 were from Gujarat and Haryana each, while 30 were from Punjab, three less than Gujarat and Haryana. It is strange to suggest that before allowing the plane to land in India, the government here should have calculated the number of deportees belonging to different states and made the landing arrangements accordingly.
It was as silly an argument then, as it is now when opposition political parties and their leaders are again crying foul over another plane landing again in Amritsar. This time Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann took the lead to attack the centre for trying to deliberately defame Punjab, Amritsar in particular. He said, Amritsar is the land of Gurus and it should not be defamed by allowing the landing of planes carrying deportees there. He also added that making the US military plane land at an airport close to the border with a hostile country like Pakistan is not in the country’s security interest.
Also read: BJP alleges Mann playing politics over deportees
Mann was not alone in attributing motives to the landing of the US military plane in Amritsar. Shiv Sena (UBT) Rajya Sabha MP Priyanka Chaturvedi also questioned the motives behind making the plane land in Amritsar instead of Gujarat.
"The first aircraft that landed with immigrants who were brought back in inhuman conditions had most of the people from Gujarat. That flight should have landed in Gujarat, but it landed in Amritsar to create an impression that all illegal immigrants are from Punjab and that it is the only state with economic distress", she was quoted by ANI.
Senior Congress leader and Chandigarh MP Manish Tewari also joined the issue while strongly objecting to the plane carrying the deportees landing in Amritsar.
Tewari asked, “why are these planes landing in Punjab? What is the kind of message you're trying to send? Are you trying to send a message that every illegal immigrant to the USA is from Punjab?”
Supporting Punjab CM’s stand, Tewari said, “Punjab CM is absolutely correct to that extent. There were people from Gujarat and Haryana. You could have landed this plane in Delhi or anywhere else. Why in Amritsar all the time? Delhi does not understand that Punjab does not take very easily to humiliation and there is always a cost to pay when Delhi tries to humiliate Punjab”.
The partisan tone of the AAP, Congress and Shiv Sena leaders cannot be missed. Their only purpose is to create a controversy where there is none. Amritsar is as much a part of India as any other place. Are these leaders trying to suggest something else? They are only trying to feed the misplaced narratives of imagined grievances and “step-motherly” treatment to fan a feeling of alienation.
In fact another Congress MP, Gurjeet Aujla, who represents Amritsar, sounded more balanced, while dismissing the suggestion that by making the planes land in Amritsar, Punjab or Amritsar was being defamed. He said, Punjab was proud of its NRIs who are spread across the globe. He suggested that the government should focus on the more serious issue as why do the youth feel so desperate that they want to emigrate to other countries.
That is the question, which the opposition parties should be asking the government, both at the centre and in the state. Blaming the government or accusing it of particular motives, when there seem to be none, will not lead to any solution. It does not make even a “good headline” either, which the “headline hunters” are so fond of.
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