As row with Cong reigns, SAD steals AAP’s thunder
Politics was out in all its conflicting hues in the Punjab assembly session that concluded on Friday. Turbans were tossed, MLAs manhandled, and at least two were hospitalised — it appeared that the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) was fighting a direct war with the Congress.
Then, the SAD-BJP stood up, by the AAP’s side, made as much (if not more) noise, and managed to make its way into mindspace and headlines that the principal opposition party would have grabbed solo.
From providing “shield” to AAP MLAs in forcibly entering the House after they were suspended on Thursday, to escalating the issue with former CM Parkash Singh Badal’s hospital visit, the SAD led by Sukhbir Singh Badal used its experience.
It appeared ironic, yet symbolic of what happened, when Sukhbir got three top men of the AAP — HS Phoolka, who is leader of the opposition, journalist-turned-MLA Kanwar Sandhu, and Punjab unit co-president Aman Arora — to accompany him in his car to visit the AAP MLAs. Bikram Singh Majithia, whom the rookie party had promised to jail if it had come to power, was driving. The stated common issue was the “pride of the turban and Sikh Panth”.
Within the AAP too, there are conflicting voices. “Before the polls, we were terming Majithia responsible for the drug menace,” reminded an AAP MLA outside the House, “But our leaders sat in a car driven by him. It was wrong to use SAD MLAs as shield to re-enter the House too. A trap was laid, and we fell into it.”
On Friday, when AAP leaders held a mock session after boycotting the proceedings, MLA Sukhpal Khaira repeatedly said in his speech that the SAD was “equally responsible” for woes of Punjab. “Our fight with the SAD will continue to be the same as it was.”
Phoolka later claimed, “It was the AAP’s trap against the SAD in which they fell! The Shiromani Gurdwara Parabandhak Committee and the Akal Takht would not have issued notices to the speaker against the tossing of turbans. The SAD did it for us as it has a say in these organisations.”
Sukhbir, when asked what led to supporting the AAP, said, “It was an issues of Sikh pride... If Congress MLAs had met with the same treatment, we would have done this for them as well.” The SAD’s strategy to hold protest on Friday, too, was relatively more organised, as the party’s MLAs wore black robes and even the non-Sikh MLAs wore turbans.