Tossing of turbans ties AAP, SAD together
CONG ON BACKFOOT Opposition parties join hands against govt, seek speaker’s removal, say won’t allow House to function on final day of budget session today
After trying to outdo each other for days, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) joined forces to gun for the speaker and the Congress government after the Thursday bedlam in the Punjab assembly.
The AAP and SAD ran a bitter campaign against each other in the assembly polls just four months ago, but came together after legislators of the former were physically removed from the House following their suspension for the day. Turbans of three AAP legislators were also allegedly tossed in the melee.
The Akali legislators not only staged a walkout in support of the AAP members, but also returned to the House with the suspended AAP members in tow.
After two AAP legislators — Sarabjit Kaur Manuke and Manjit Singh — were hospitalised on getting injured in all the pushing and shoving during their eviction, Akali bigwigs — former chief minister Parkash Singh Badal and party chief Sukhbir Singh Badal — promptly went to the hospital to meet them.
IT’S WORSE THAN EMERGENCY: BADAL
Badal, who is still to show up in the House during the budget session, called the unsavoury happenings “shocking” and “worse than the horrors of the Emergency days”.
“In the 70 years of my public life, I have neither seen, nor experienced, incidents of such repressive nature,” he told reporters. Sukhbir, too, warned that his party would not let the assembly function till speaker Rana KP Singh apologises for the ruckus or is removed from his post.
Calling the speaker a “goonda” (thug), Sukhbir said his action was premeditated as he was reading out written orders to use force for the eviction of AAP legislators.
“Even clothes of women members were torn. Isn’t this goondaism?” said the former deputy CM. “It’s not a question about supporting the AAP. We are united to fight this ruthless action and cruel mindset of the speaker. We will remain in the House and will not allow it to function.”
UNITED TO FIGHT GOVT REPRESSION: PHOOLKA
Leader of opposition HS Phoolka also told HT the Opposition parties are united to face the “repressive” Congress government. “The SAD has come out in our support after they found turbans of our MLAs were tossed... We may have differences (on other issues), but we are united to fight such brutal action of the government,” he said.
Dismissing any chance of truce with the Congress, he called for “nothing short of removal of this speaker”.
Till now, the AAP and SAD had consistently tried to be one up on each other to grab the headlines.
AAP leaders even accused the Akalis of trying to help the ruling Congress on the sand mining auction row. And their coming together has taken the treasury benches by surprise.
Sources said parliamentary affairs minister Brahm Mohindra conducted a meeting with chief minister Captain Amarinder Singh late in the evening to chalk out a fresh strategy for the day.