AAP, SAD PLAY GAME OF ONEUPMANSHIP

BUDGET SESSION CM says Khaira, Bains behaved like goons; Phoolka says oppn MLAs took step as they were not heard

It was a day of one-upmanship by the opposition Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD). Both parties competed to outdo each other on Day Two of the budget session of the Punjab assembly on Thursday. The House was adjourned thrice by speaker Rana KP Singh due to continued ruckus. All 20 legislators of the AAP were suspended for the day. Both MLAs of Lok Insaaf Party, its alliance partner, were also (suspended). The speaker ordered their suspension and adjourned the House after paper missiles – thick bundles of assembly papers – were hurled at him.

All 20 Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) legislators were suspended for the day, and their ally Simarjeet Singh Bains of the Lok Insaaf Party (LIP) for the remainder of the budget session till June 23, after they created a ruckus in the Punjab assembly over the alleged scam in auction of sand mines by the Congress regime, on Thursday afternoon.

Shortly before 1pm, speaker Rana KP Singh adjourned the House for the third and final time for the day, after ordering suspension of the MLAs for throwing papers at him and heckling the marshals who stopped them from climbing his dais. Such was the pandemonium that marshals climbed the elevated platform of the speaker to save him from the flying bundles of papers. On one occasion, he had to duck to avoid getting hit by a bundle.

He also received a complaint against Bains from Congress MLA Kulbir Singh Zira that he had torn papers kept on his desk on Wednesday. This can lead to a privilege motion, said an official.

The ruckus started soon after the House reassembled at 12.30pm, and the speaker rejected an adjournment motion moved by AAP’s Sukhpal Khaira on the sand-mine auction held in May. In that auction, some “former” employees of minister Rana Gurjit Singh got contracts. CM Capt Amarinder Singh has ordered a judicial inquiry but has refused to sack Rana.

As AAP MLAs demanded that the motion be taken up, slogans rented the air: “Land-sand mafia murdabad”, and others that were expunged by the speaker. SAD and BJP members sat quietly.

The protest escalated quickly, and the speaker yelled at Bains for repeatedly hurling papers at him despite warnings. “I name you, I name you,” the speaker said, pointing to Bains, meaning suspended for the remaining session in legislative terminology.

After the adjournment, the AAP and LIP MLAs held a mock session in the lobby.

Walking out of the house, the CM criticised the opposition’s behaviour as “unacceptable” and termed the episode “the first such since I have come into politics”. He added, “Two MLAs, Bains and Khaira, acted like goons in the House in the time that was meant to discuss people’s issues.”

But the leader of opposition, HS Phoolka, said the MLAs were “forced to take the extreme step” as they were not heard.

Just before the ruckus, as the speaker started taking resolutions from MLAs, the first one was by Congress MLA Hardial Singh Kamboj, praising the government for “smooth” procurement of wheat. Nine other resolutions could not be tabled. These included praise for the government by the ruling party MLAs and a call for action on drugs and farm debt by the opposition.