Under the leadership of Punjab Youth Congress President Shubham Sharma Shubhi, Youth Congress workers staged a massive protest outside the residence of Punjab Education Minister Harjot Singh Bains in Rupnagar on Tuesday.
During the protest, demonstrators engaged in a heated scuffle with the police and broke through the barricades to reach the minister’s residence. They staged a sit-in outside the house and demanded the minister’s resignation. Expressing their anger, the protesters also smeared black paint on the signboard installed outside the minister’s residence.
As the Education Minister was not present at his residence, the Tehsildar of Anandpur Sahib arrived at the spot and accepted a memorandum from the protesters.
In the memorandum, the Youth Congress demanded the resignation of the Education Minister. It warned that if he does not resign within five days, the Youth Congress will lay siege to his office in Chandigarh and burn effigies of the Education Minister and the Punjab Government across various districts of the state.
Shubham Shubhi said that the Education Minister should have resigned on moral grounds. He alleged that several examination papers have been leaked during the minister’s tenure, yet no accountability has been fixed so far. He further stated that following protests in Delhi over the NEET paper leak case, Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan was forced to resign, adding that “now it is Harjot Bains’ turn.”
Shubhi also said that senior Aam Aadmi Party leaders, including Arvind Kejriwal, Manish Sisodia, and Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann, had publicly stated that if a paper leak incident occurred in Punjab, the concerned minister would be made to resign.
He alleged that they are now backtracking on their promise and that their “double standards” have been exposed. He added that the Aam Aadmi Party would not be allowed to renege on its commitment, and that the Youth Congress would continue its protests across Punjab until the minister resigns. He said the agitation would be intensified in the coming days.