Chandigarh: Whereas the Aam Aadmi Get together (AAP) and the Congress are certain in an electoral alliance in a number of states, antagonism between the events’ leaders peaked within the Punjab Meeting Monday after Chief Minister and AAP chief Bhagwant Mann brazenly threatened Congress MLAs with vigilance inquiries.
The chief minister additionally acquired it again in full measure from the opposition MLAs and was seen dropping his cool a number of occasions. At one level, Mann even rushed to the nicely of the Home to lodge his protest.
The altercation broke out when Mann, beginning the second day of the Price range Session with a dialogue on the Governor’s Friday handle, handed over a sealed envelope to Speaker Kultar Singh Sandhwan, saying he had introduced him a present and requested him to open the envelope earlier than the Home.
The Speaker discovered a lock and key in it.
Mann went on to say that the Speaker ought to lock the door of the Vidhan Sabha to make sure that opposition MLAs proceed to take a seat by your complete proceedings of the Home.
He additional stated the Opposition was “working away” from a dialogue on the Governor’s handle as a result of they might not bear to listen to his (AAP) authorities’s “path-breaking initiatives”.
Chief of the Opposition Partap Singh Bajwa opposed Mann’s demand by saying that it was unlawful and unconstitutional to ask for the locking down of the Vidhan Sabha.
The Speaker defined that the lock was solely a symbolic gesture by the chief minister to make sure that the MLAs elected by the individuals don’t waste their time in strolling out of the meeting however sit by the periods and interact in significant dialogue.
The Opposition then demanded that the Speaker go forward and attempt to lock the Home, triggering a frontal assault from the chief minister. Taking out one other set of lock and key from his pocket, Mann stated: “I’ve purchased this different set to lock the opposite door (of the meeting) and be sure that none of my (AAP) MLAs transfer out of the home.”
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Verbal duel in meeting
Attacking Bajwa, Mann claimed that senior Congress leaders Rahul Gandhi and Sonia Gandhi met him extra usually than they met Bajwa.
Mann additional challenged Bajwa to speak to his occasion excessive command and get the INDIA bloc seat-sharing association (between the AAP and Congress) discarded. “Nobody in Delhi and even in Punjab listens to what Bajwa has to say,” Mann stated, mocking Bajwa.
He additionally stated the “Congress was on its knees” and was “requesting the AAP each day to forge an alliance with it”.
Persevering with together with his assault on Bajwa, Mann asserted that whereas “AAP leaders have been consuming flour biscuits since childhood, the highest leaders of the Congress had gold biscuits smuggled by their fathers”.
“That smuggling file can even be opened,” he informed Bajwa.
In sturdy language and indignant gestures, Mann additional alleged that “Bajwa wore shawls value Rs 1.25 lakh and appeared down upon AAP MLAs as poor”.
The chief minister acquired visibly upset when Bajwa retorted that Mann, a former comic, used to “earn Rs 250 per present as a junior artist with Congress MLA Muhammad Sadiq, a singer-turned-politician”.
“Sure, I used to earn solely Rs 250. However that’s the energy of democracy {that a} poor man is CM,” stated Mann.
“And to rise in showmanship one must be gifted and proficient… Your son has been making an attempt to turn out to be an actor and forcing you to launch him into movies for therefore a few years however he has acquired nowhere,” stated the CM, referring to Bajwa’s son Arjun, a model-turned-actor.
This was not all. Mann stated Bajwa’s goals of changing into chief minister would by no means come true. “Since you may by no means get the true factor, why don’t you come and sit on my chair for half an hour as a way to get the sensation of being a CM,” stated Mann.
When Punjab Congress chief Amarinder Singh Raja Warring joined Bajwa in elevating slogans towards the CM, Mann introduced that he would provoke motion into allegations that Warring had as transport minister scammed the state in giving out bus physique contracts.
The chief minister additionally chided former AAP chief Sukhpal Khaira, now within the Congress, about altering events. Khaira retorted to say that he had “given up the filth that was AAP, however the CM continued to be in it”.
Mann additional took a jibe at former minister Sukhjinder Randhawa when the latter talked about AAP “looting the state”.
“You’re speaking about loot?… Your chief minister has joined the BJP way back,” stated Mann, referring to former Punjab chief minister Captain Amarinder Singh becoming a member of the BJP in 2022.
Mann additionally equated Congressman Navjot Singh Sidhu with a items prepare that chugged from Jammu’s Kathua in direction of Punjab and not using a driver, calling him “a one-man present who just isn’t bothered about anybody”.
After rudely telling opposition leaders to take a seat down (“baith ja”) and preserve quiet (“chup kar”), Mann was seen complaining to the Speaker in regards to the language utilized by opposition leaders towards him, together with using the phrase “tu” (an off-the-cuff method of claiming “you”) by Bajwa.
“I’ve recordsdata on everybody,” the CM stated. “It could be higher that each one of you stay quiet, in any other case I’ll expose every one among you,” he added.
Speaking to media individuals outdoors the meeting, Bajwa stated that “Mann was so energy drunk that he had no worry of god left”.
.@BhagwantMann ਤੂੰ ਪੰਜਾਬ ਵਿੱਚ ਜਿੱਥੋਂ ਵੀ ਲੋਕ ਸਭਾ ਚੋਣ ਲੜੇਗਾ ਮੈਂ ਤੇਰੇ ਖਿਲਾਫ਼ ਲੜਾਂਗਾ pic.twitter.com/BIVp3XhITl
— Partap Singh Bajwa (@Partap_Sbajwa) March 4, 2024
“I’ve challenged him that if he’s the son of his father, he ought to contest the forthcoming parliamentary elections, and wherever he contests from, I’ll stand towards him,” he stated.
After the session, Khaira said on social media that Mann behaved like a “pissed off youngster”.
“Very saddening to see the bottom & least expensive degree of politics of hatred exhibited by @BhagwantMann immediately within the Vidhan Sabha blatantly threatening & browbeating @INCIndia Mla’s to gag the voices of opposition. He behaved like a pissed off youngster pointing fingers and combating with opposition even worse than the village degree. I’ve by no means seen any politician go away apart a Cm stoop to this degree of gimmickry.”
Very saddening to see the bottom & least expensive degree of politics of hatred exhibited by @BhagwantMann immediately within the Vidhan Sabha blatantly threatening & browbeating @INCIndia Mla’s to gag the voices of opposition. He behaved like a pissed off youngster pointing fingers and combating with… pic.twitter.com/GH7kKSQWA3
— Sukhpal Singh Khaira (@SukhpalKhaira) March 4, 2024
The Speaker adjourned the Home for quarter-hour to convey order.
When it re-assembled, Congress MLAs got here to the nicely of the Home and began elevating slogans towards the chief minister and the Speaker. It was solely when the Speaker moved to provoke suspension proceedings that order was restored within the Home.
(Edited by Nida Fatima Siddiqui)
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