Former Congress president Rahul Gandhi will be meeting on Tuesday the family of singer Sidhu Moosewala, who was shot dead by unknown assailants on May 29.
Senior Congress leader Sachin Pilot paid a visit to the family on Monday.
Moosewala had joined the Congress ahead of the 2022 Assembly election in Punjab and was the party’s candidate from the Mansa seat.
Mr. Gandhi was not in India when the incident happened. He returned this weekend. He will be accompanied by leaders from Punjab. His visit comes at a time when the senior leadership of the party has been under severe criticism for only paying verbal tributes on the death of their leader, though the State Congress leaders were present at his funeral and met the family. Earlier, Union Home Minister Amit Shah and Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann had met Moosewala’s parents. Akali Dal leader Sukhbir Badal too had paid a visit.
Mr. Pilot’s visit was the first trip by the senior leadership to Mansa after Moosewala’s death. “There is a lot of concern about the state of affairs in Punjab, which is a border State. The State in last one month has been in news for all the wrong reasons. The cycle of violence which has begun again is disheartening,” Mr. Pilot told The Hindu. He added that there is a lot of apprehension about what lies ahead.
“From what I can understand, this incident happened to instil fear in people. Drug mafias, terrorists, gangsters are getting a foothold in Punjab. Centre and the State should hold a thorough probe into the incident,” Mr. Pilot added.
Mr. Pilot also raised questions about the working of the newly elected Aam Aadmi Party government in Punjab. “I think there is a certain lack of depth in the functioning of the current government. They won a massive mandate and obviously there are high expectations from them. But there have been serious lapses in governance in the last few weeks. Law and order after all is a state subject,” Mr. Pilot said.
