Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, May 24: The Punjab health minister Vijay Singla, the first to declare the Aam Aadmi Party government’s war against corruption, ironically became the first minister in the state to be sacked from the cabinet on corruption charges. He was arrested soon after his sacking on charge of demanding bribe for all government tenders pertaining to his department.
The chief minister Bhagwant Mann on Tuesday announced sacking of Dr Singla, a dentist by profession. Making the announcement through a video message, Mann said Singla was sacked for allegedly seeking a “one per cent cut” in tender allotments and purchase of goods related to his department.”
“A case was brought to my notice that a minister in my Cabinet was seeking 1 pc commission for each tender and purchase related to his department. Neither the media nor the Opposition knew about the case…Only I knew about it. Had I wanted, I would have covered it up. Had I done so, I would not only have failed my conscience but also that of lakhs of people who placed their trust in me. I am sacking him from my Cabinet and directing police to take action against him. He has confessed to me,” Mann said.
Shortly after Mann announced Singla’s sacking over alleged corruption, he was rewarded with high praise from his party boss and the Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal, who said the move “brought tears to my eyes”. The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) chief said it proved his party was the only one that could provide a “kattar imandar sarkar (strictly honest government)” anywhere in the country.
“Proud of you Bhagwant. Your action has brought tears to my eyes. Whole nation today feels proud of AAP,” Arvind Kejriwal, the Delhi Chief Minister, posted, sharing a video of Bhagwant Mann announcing the action.
On March 23, days after he was sworn in as Health Minister in the Mann-led Cabinet, the first AAP ministry in Punjab, Singla, 52, held a meeting of health officials in Chandigarh, where he said the government would have “zero tolerance” for corruption.
Exactly two months later, he was dropped on the same charge what he had promised to fight against, particularly after the AAP came to power in the state on the promise of “badlaav (change)” and a corruption-free regime. Singla was among the 10 medical professionals to have won on AAP ticket in the Assembly elections earlier this year.
A Bachelor of Dentistry Surgery (BDS), Singla joined the AAP in 2016 and, soon after, was made joint secretary of the party’s trade wing in the state. In the 2022 elections, the AAP put up Singla from Mansa, where he trounced the Congress’s Shubhdeep Singh Sidhu Moosewala, a popular Punjabi singer with millions of fans, by a margin of 63,323 votes – among the highest winning margins in the election.
Sources said the party favoured Singla over other AAP ticket aspirants primarily because Mansa has over 60,000 Hindu votes. In 2017, too, Mansa had elected an AAP MLA, Nazar Singh Manshahia, but he defected to Congress in April 2019 ahead of the Lok Sabha polls.
While his win was attributed to the AAP wave ahead of the elections, Singla’s induction in the Cabinet came as a surprise as he was chosen over many senior names such as Baljinder Kaur from Talwandi Sabo and Aman Arora from Sunam.
According to the affidavit that he submitted at the time of filing his nomination, Singla has Rs 6.48 crore as his assets and Rs 27 lakh as liabilities. He did his BDS in 1992 from Patiala’s Punjabi University. While Singla’s dental clinic continues to be in Mansa, he no longer practises because of his political engagements. His wife is an Ayurveda practitioner.
Singla’s removal came as a surprise to many, with sources saying there was no hint of any impending action against the minister. Over the last few days, the minister had been going about his engagements as usual. On May 21, Singla was in Mansa distributing relief funds to families of five farmers from the district who died during the farm agitation against the three farm laws.
On April 3, he ordered a crackdown on adulteration in milk and milk products, following which raids were carried out in Ludhiana, Sangrur, Fatehgarh Sahib and Patiala. On March 31, he warned owners of private de-addiction centres of penal action if they are found misusing drugs at their centres. “The old days of making empty claims are over; our government is committed to making Punjab drug-free,” he had said.
Kejriwal in his congratulatory message to Mann said he had sacked one of his ministers for corruption soon after taking power in the capital. “Bhagwant, we are proud of you. The entire Punjab is proud of you. The entire country is proud of you,” he said in a video message later.
“Not even one per cent corruption will be tolerated,” Mann said. “The people have voted for an AAP government with a lot of hope, we have to live up to it. As long as Mother India has a son like Arvind Kejriwal and a soldier like Bhagwant Mann, the great war against corruption will continue,” he said.
