Chandigarh, March 5, 2021 (Yes Punjab News)
The Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) today said the Vidhan Sabha Speaker played into the hands of chief minister Capt Amarinder Singh and followed the latter’s gestures to forcibly remove and suspend SAD legislators from the assembly for the remaining part of the budget session.
Terming this cowardly action as a direct result of the “akh-mataka” between the Speaker and the chief minister, former minister Bikram Singh Majithia said “the Speaker gestured with his eyes to the chief minister to take directions from him and Capt Amarinder Singh gestured back to direct the Speaker to suspend the SAD mlas from the assembly”.
The SAD leader said it was clear that the chief minister and the Congress party did not have the courage to listen to the truth and wanted a clear field to peddle their lies. “That is why those who opposed their lies and deceitful ways have been suspended from the assembly while those who are pliant listeners like the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) legislators are still in the assembly. Democracy has been murdered in the process.
Stating that the SAD would not be cowed down by such repressive measures undertaken in a planned manner to silence the “real opposition” by the “Sarkari Speaker”, Mr Bikram Majithia while addressing newsmen outside the Vidhan Sabha along with other SAD mlas said “we will continue to raise the burning issues of the people and the injustice done to them by the Congress government”.
Speaking about the developments in the Vidhan Sabha, Mr Majithia said all the SAD legislators did was object to the lies being uttered by the chief minister. “It was not an issue of one lie, but lie after lie”. Giving examples he said first Capt Amarinder lied that the municipal elections which had witnessed murders, voting by dead men and even an attack on the SAD President, were conducted very peacefully.
He said following this the Chief minister spoke about how the “stellar performance” of the government in controlling Covid even though it was a matter of record that the Punjab government’s performance on this score was one of the worst in the country as was exposed by Dr Sukhwinder Kumar who gave the instance of the Health minister getting himself treated from a private hospital.
“The chief minister also uttered a lie about waiving off fixed charges for three months to the industrial sector following which it was the responsibility of our member N K Sharma to tell him that these bills had been levied subsequently and were not waived at all besides telling how power tariff had been increased from Rs five per unit to Rs 9.50 per unit for the industrial sector”.
He said the chief minister even played politics by hiding his role in finalizing the Agricultural ordinances and mischievously quoting a selected portion of a letter of the SAD President to befool the people besides misrepresenting the role of former minister Harsimarat Kaur Badal who resigned from the union cabinet in solidarity with the farming community. He said the chief minister also spoke lies about school fees besides other issues.
Mr Majithia said the Speaker did not allow SAD legislators to give the factual position on these issues like asking the chief minister to explain why Congress President Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi had left the country purposely when the Agricultural Bills were being tabled in the house as well as the fixed match played in the Rajya Sabha to ensure the Bills were passed despite the fact that the BJP was in a minority.
He said the Speaker took it upon himself to silence them and even adjourned the house and told the legislators to allow the chief minister to speak uninterrupted. “We on our part made it clear that we had not come to listen to the lies of the chief minister and would raise the issues of promised made to the people be it demanding complete loan waiver for farmers, jobs for youth, Rs 2,500 unemployment allowance, Rs 2,500 old age pension, Rs 51,000 Shagun benefit, tea leaves and sugar for the disadvantaged, restart of the SC scholarship scheme and justice for government employees who were not getting Dearness Allowance arrears and other benefits.
We also wanted to ask why the Congress government spent crores of rupees to defend underworld Don Mukhtiar Ansari but was not ready to defend human rights activists Nodeep Kuar and Shiv Kumar besides victims of police barbarity like Ranjit Singh”.
