Punjab Independence Day dance sparks dispute over alleged knee-surgery beneficiaries

A video of three senior men dancing at a state Independence Day event in Ferozepur has ignited a political clash, with opposition parties claiming they were presented as recipients of a knee-replacement scheme despite being health-department staff.

During Punjab’s state-level Independence Day celebration in Ferozepur, a short video showed three elderly men dancing to a Punjabi song as part of a health-department tableau promoting the Mukh Mantri Sehat Yojana, a scheme offering up to Rs 10 lakh for eligible treatments. While the AAP government presented the dancers as grateful beneficiaries of free knee-replacement surgery, sources later indicated the three men were actually health-department employees.

Opposition leaders, including Congress MLA Pargat Singh, Punjab Congress president Amrinder Singh Raja Warring, and SAD figure Bikram Singh Majithia, condemned the display as a misleading political stunt and demanded an apology from Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann. AAP’s Ferozepur Urban MLA Ranbir Singh Bhullar and party in-charge Manish Sisodia refuted the accusations, asserting the participants had indeed benefited from the scheme and were merely expressing joy.

The debate was sparked by a post from the social-media handle Tractor2TwitterPunjab, which called the performance “peak clownery.” Officials from the Ferozepur deputy commissioner's office and the civil surgeon declined to comment.