House extols Constitution-makers, leaders
Haryana chief minister urges legislators to spread awareness regarding the duties of citizens; barbs fly towards session’s end
CHANDIGARH: Filled with sarcasm sweet and sour, the Haryana Vidhan Sabha unanimously extolled the makers of the Constitution during its special session held to commemorate the Constitution Day here on Tuesday.
Setting the ball rolling to mark the session, chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar hailed all those who made sacrifices during the freedom struggle and those who drafted the Constitution, 70 years ago.
Khattar, who is also the leader of the House, subsequently moved a proposal that all the legislators should take a pledge to spread awareness regarding the duties of citizens.
“Our Constitution that provides us fundamental rights also lays down fundamental duties. I personally feel that we should give more importance to the duties over rights,” he said. The CM said the fundamental duties reflected the Vedic ideology of ‘Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam’ — the immortal message of peace, patience and mutual harmony. He said to make the people, especially the younger generation, familiar with the fundamental duties, an awareness campaign would be launched in the state from November 26 till the 129th birth anniversary of Dr Bhim Rao
Ambedkar on April 14, 2020.
BJP ally Jannayak Janta Party (JJP) leader and deputy CM Dushyant Chautala also remembered the freedom fighters and law makers. He espoused for giving the title of ‘man of equality’ to Dr Ambedkar on the lines of title of ‘iron man’ to Sardar Patel.
Participating in the discussion on the resolution, leader of opposition Bhupinder Singh Hooda highlighted the sacrifices of people for the freedom of the country and remembered scholars who drafted the Constitution. “It is a matter of pride that Nihal Singh Takshak, Pandit Thakur Das Bhargava and my father Ranbir Singh Hooda were also instrumental in framing the Constitution,” said Hooda, adding that it was a pleasant coincidence that November 26 happens to be his father’s birth day, evoking applaud in the House.
VOLATILE TALK
The deliberations took a serious turn when the ruling BJP’s own MLA Abhe Yadav said that it was strange that the legislators who were supposed to spend time in dissecting the bills to make them better laws passed the same without going into the details.
Congress’ senior leader Kiran Choudhry took a critical view of “growing intolerance, communal polarisation and lynchings, etc’’. However, the scene got volatile the moment she mentioned about political situation in Goa and Maharashtra. “It is a travesty when the Constitution heads bend backwards to please their political masters,” she said.
This evoked a sharp rebuke from home minister Anil Vij who objected to her reference and held that how come she did not refer to 1975 Emergency and 1982 incident in Haryana. Heated and loud protests erupted among the Congress and BJP MLAs for long till speaker Gian Chand Gupta asked them to be quite. However, the issues kept cropping up again and again when other MLAs, including Congress’ Geeta Bhukkal and BB Batra and BJP’s Kamal Gupta and Aseem Goel and Jannayak Janta Party’s Ram Kumar Gautam spoke.
LAUGHTER BOMB
After remaining caught up in a war of barbs and sarcasm for long, a lighter moment came when the first-time Congress’ Assandh MLA Shamsher Goggi said the people’s representatives, including himself, were the biggest “danger” today. “The greatest tribute to the Constitution will be if the legislators themselves take a pledge to work as per the law. Pardon me for saying this, but serving people selflessly is the most difficult job in the country today,” he added, leaving the House in smiles.