Days after the Punjab Police requested people to remove objectionable content that promotes gun culture from their social media handles, Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) leader Bikram Singh Majithia, on Tuesday, demanded registration of first information report (FIR) against Cabinet minister Anmol Gagan Mann for promoting gun culture.
In a statement, the former minister said there could not be a different law for a minister and the common man when it comes to Punjab Police’s appeal for removing content that promotes gun culture.
He said even though Punjab Police chief Gaurav Yadav had, on Saturday, given a 72 hour deadline to remove all pictures promoting gun culture from social media accounts, Punjab Minister of State for Tourism and Cultural Affairs Anmol Gagan Maan failed to heed this warning and she should be proceeded against immediately.
“This is important keeping in mind the need to send out a clear signal that the law cannot be different for a khas aadmi”, he added.
Mann, a prominent Punjabi singer before joining the Aam Aadmi Party, has, however, removed the pictures related to music videos featuring her as actor and singer from her social media handle in which she was seen carrying a gun.
Majithia, however, said the government’s priorities were misplaced. “Instead of taking effective steps to control the law and order situation, drives like the one on perceived gun culture have been started which are resulting in action against minors,” he said.
The SAD leader said a youth was booked for posing with a gun when he was ten years old in 2015 in Majithia constituency. “There are many other such examples also with people naming each other due to rivalry,” he added.
The Akali leader also asserted even as on the one hand the AAP government was taking steps against the perceived gun culture, it was simultaneously forcing people to cough up donations of up to Rs 20,000 to Rs 30,000 to District Red Cross Societies to issue gun licenses. “Many licenses have also been revoked unilaterally which will only give rise to more corruption”, he added.
Asking the State DGP to strike at the heart of the problem,Majithia said “Real time steps should be taken to arrest the decline in the law and order situation in the State”. He also asserted that the State Police should be given a free hand to root out gangsters and anti-social elements besides proceeding against those who patronised them to ensure justice could be truly given to the common man.