“We have no personal enmity with Cheema sahib. 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 that there should be an investigation, there should be an FIR?” Pilot said.
He also accused the AAP government of failing to fulfil its election promises and alleged that drug availability had worsened in Punjab.
“Today, there is a home delivery of ‘chitta’ (synthetic drugs). You make a phone call and it is reaching every home,” he claimed.
Pilot said Congress would continue to raise the issue and seek justice for Singh.
“Rahul Gandhi ji has told all of us that we have to struggle with the people of Punjab as their voice,” he said.
This was Pilot’s first visit to Punjab since he was appointed the Congress general secretary in-charge of the state.
The protest also brought together several senior leaders of the faction-ridden Punjab Congress, including former chief minister and Jalandhar MP Charanjit Singh Channi and Gurdaspur MP Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa.
The state Congress has faced internal differences since the party leadership decided on 1 July to retain Warring as state unit president and appoint Channi as chairman of its campaign committee. A section of leaders led by Channi had opposed Warring’s continuation.
However, the leaders who joined Tuesday’s protest said their immediate priority was to strengthen the party ahead of the 2027 Punjab Assembly elections, while leadership questions would be decided by the Congress high command later.
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