Chandigarh, Oct 4 (IANS) Leader of Opposition Partap Singh Bajwa on Sunday slammed the Aam Aadmi Party government in Punjab over its much-publicised claims of ‘Sikhya Kranti’, saying its government legislator has publicly exposed serious gaps in the education system.
Bajwa said Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann’s repeated claims of transforming the state’s government schools stand sharply contradicted by the concerns raised by legislator Sukhveer Singh Maiserkhana, who went public with complaints about teacher shortages and the functioning of government schools in his constituency.
“Bhagwant Mann can continue to repeat the slogan of ‘Sikhya Kranti’, but the reality inside Punjab’s government schools is increasingly difficult to hide. When a sitting AAP MLA goes public, says his own children study in a government school and raises concerns about a shortage of teachers affecting students, it exposes the widening gap between AAP’s publicity and the reality on the ground,” Bajwa said in a statement.
Maiserkhana has publicly stated that his children study in a government school and raised concerns about inadequate teaching staff, including at the School of Eminence attended by his son. He has also said he raised the issue with senior AAP leaders and the government but claimed his concerns were not addressed.
Bajwa said his assertions raised fundamental questions about the AAP government’s claims of ‘Sikhya Kranti’. “If an elected MLA has to publicly raise the basic issue of having enough teachers in classrooms, what exactly is this ‘Sikhya Kranti’ that the Mann government keeps advertising? Education cannot be transformed through slogans, branding and publicity. It requires teachers in classrooms, functioning schools and accountability to parents and students,” Bajwa said.
He also questioned the action taken against Maiserkhana. The AAP Punjab unit suspended the MLA from the party’s primary membership, citing “anti-party activities and indiscipline”, after his public criticism of the government.
“The AAP leadership has chosen to act against the messenger instead of addressing the message. A shortage of teachers is a governance issue, not an anti-party activity. If an elected representative raises concerns about the education of children in his constituency, the government should listen, investigate and fix the problem, not silence him,” Bajwa said.
He said the episode further exposed what he described as AAP’s intolerance towards internal criticism. “In a democracy, an MLA raising questions about the functioning of his own government should be seen as accountability, not indiscipline. The people of Punjab deserve answers on teacher shortages and the quality of education in government schools. They do not need another publicity campaign,” Bajwa said.
He added that the AAP government cannot simultaneously claim a historic ‘Sikhya Kranti’ while elected representatives are publicly raising concerns about basic shortages in schools.
“Punjab’s children deserve teachers, not slogans; quality education, not publicity; and functioning schools, not political branding. The Mann government must stop hiding behind the slogan of ‘Sikhya Kranti’ and start answering the questions being raised from within its own ranks,” Bajwa added.
–IANS
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