In a scene straight out of the Bollywood flick, Punjab Finance Minister Manpreet Badal on Friday made a sudden appearance in Punjab Vidhan Sabha after being held back by Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) leaders and the families of farmer suicide victims virtually laying a siege at his official residence.

Manpreet, who was scheduled to reach the Vidhan Sabha at 10:30 am to present the budget at 11 am, reached seconds before the Speaker Rana KP Singh adjourned the House for 20 minutes to take up the matter with UT Administrator VP Singh Badnore, who is also Punjab Governor.

This is for the first time in the recallable history that the House has to be adjourned before the presentation of the budget because the Finance Minister could not reach on time.

SAD MLAs and leaders, along with the families of farmer suicide victims, staged a protest outside the Finance Minister’s house in Sector 2, blocking the entrance to prevent him from reaching the Assembly on time.

Intervening during the question hour, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Brahm Mohindra informed the Speaker about the situation and demanded his intervention. “An ugly situation has arisen as the UT Police had not been able evict the Akalis…either you give directions to the Punjab Police or allow us,” he said, adding that delaying the presentation of the budget also amounts to breach of privilege of the House.

Sensing urgency of the unprecedented situation, the Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh discussed the issue with Mohindra and the Jails Minister Sukhjinder Randhawa.

As Manpreet failed to reach the House even after the conclusion of the question hour, soon after which he was scheduled to present the budget, the Speaker adjourned the House for 20 minutes. However, Manpreet entered the Assembly just two minutes before he was to present the budget.

As the House resumed, Mohindra moved the privilege motion against the all the Akali MLAs saying that they indulged in breach of privileges for “obstructing” the work of Finance Minister and all the members on the day he was to present the budget, which was unanimously passed, and the matter has been referred to the special privileges committee of the House.

Lashing out the Akalis, Capt Amarinder, in a statement, said that their sole objective was to prevent the Government from continuing to work for the welfare of the state and its people. “The Akalis, who had been responsible for destroying the state’s economy during the 10 years of their misrule, have clearly wanted to divert public attention from the progressive budget with these actions,” he added.

SUSPEND AKALIS FOR THE REMAINING SESSION: MINISTERS

Several Cabinet Ministers also condemned the “hooliganism” by the Akali workers and legislators outside Manpreet’s residence.

“Akalis should be ashamed of trying to use the family members of the suicide victims for scoring political points. It is outrageous and shameful that the Akalis are trying to make political capital out of tragedies of farmers’ suicides and shamelessly parading their family members for petty gains,” said the Ministers including Brahm Mohindra, Tripat Rajinder Singh Bajwa, Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa, Balbir Sidhu and Sukh Sarkaria.

They said that it was “unprecedented” that the Akali legislators supported by goons held Manpreet Badal hostage and prevented him from coming out and reaching the Punjab Vidhan Sabha on time.

“For the first time in history, the House has to be adjourned for 20 minutes just because the Finance Minister could not reach the Vidhan Sabha on time as he had been held hostage by the Akali goons and legislators who were not letting him to come out,” they said while welcoming the unanimous privilege motion passed against the Akali MLAs in the Vidhan Sabha and demanded that they must be suspended for the rest of the session.

MANPREET SHOULD HAVE LISTEN TO VICTIMS’ GRIEVANCES

Condemning Manpreet Badal and the Chandigarh Police for resorting to ‘gundagardi’ to stifle farm suicide victim families’ voice, SAD legislative party wing leader Sharanjit Singh Dhillon and MLA Bikram Singh Majithia said that rather than listening to their grievances, Finance Minister ordered the Chandigarh police to remove them forcibly resulting in highhandedness against old men and women, children and even handicapped persons.

“SAD-BJP MLAs were also targeted in a planned manner and manhandled deliberately at the instance of the Finance Minister who has violated their privilege…The MLAs were detained deliberately for the entire duration of the budget session as well as till such time the Finance Minister’s press conference was not over.

This is for the first time in the history of Punjab that opposition legislators have been prevented from participating in the budget session in such a manner. This is indeed a black day in the history of the Vidhan Sabha,” they said.

Majithia alleged that the Finance Minister “enacted a drama of reaching late for the assembly” as the Chandigarh Police had lifted victim families and legislators from the spot at 10.45 am.

“He could have even walked to the Vidhan Sabha in 15 minutes but he deliberately reached late as part of a well-planned conspiracy to get a privilege motion initiated against SAD-BJP legislators. We are not scared by such tactics and will continue to gherao the Finance Minister till the Congress Government fulfills its promise to waive of all loans of suicide victim families besides disbursing Rs 10 lakh compensation and a government job to one family member,” he said.

Later, five-time Chief Minister and SAD patron Parkash Singh Badal rushed to the police station to offer solace to detained farm suicide victim families.

Expressing shock at the police action, he said that it amounted to “murder of democracy”. “Only in a feudal set up did rulers behave with their aggrieved subjects in such a manner…Such an incident has never happened in the history of the state,” he added.