In an aftermath of Punjab and Haryana High Court’s judgment in Kotkapura firing incident, an upheaval was witnessed during the Punjab Cabinet meeting on Monday when the state Congress president Sunil Jakhar and Cabinet Minister Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa put in their papers — which were right away rejected by the Chie Minister Capt Amarinder Singh.
The senior party leaders gave their “written” resignation to the Chief Minister during the meeting, in the presence of all Cabinet Ministers and also the senior government officials, when the discussion on the observations of the High Court took an ugly turn.
Notably, the two leaders had expressed their opinions after the High Court’s judgment. While Jakhar had stated that we need to understand and learn from the High Court judgment, Randhawa had raised questions on his own Government.
Sources informed The Pioneer that fireworks were witnessed during the Cabinet meeting.
When the Chief Minister questioned the two leaders on their statements, they at once handed over the written resignation to the Capt Amarinder saying that it was of no use continuing in the team if they could not be trusted.
“All were discussing the High Court’s observations during the meeting but things turned bad at one point. Unhappy, Sunil (Jakhar) gave his written resignation. Sukhi (Sukhjinder Randhawa) took the paper and wrote his resignation right then and handed it over to the Chief Minister. However, the Chief Minister has rejected the same,” said a senior Cabinet Minister.
The Minister added, “The resignations were rejected and everything has ended now. There is no use discussing this. But yes, there is immense dissatisfaction among the party leaders over the sacrilege issue and the Government and party are making all out efforts to resolve this crisis.”
It has been learnt that angered Jakhar handed over his resignation to the Chief Minister saying that the same can be forwarded to the party chief Sonia Gandhi if he could not be trusted.
On the other hand, after Randhawa was accused of suggesting Kunwar Vijay
Partap’s name as SIT head which has pushed the Congress party on the back foot now after the High Court’s judgment, he also put in his papers saying that his dignity was being questioned.
Notably, Randhawa, on Saturday, had stated that his own party’s government in Punjab was very much responsible for the delay in the case reaching its logical conclusion.
He stated that someone’s responsibility has to be fixed for this inexplicable delay, for which our own government is responsible “Four years (since Congress came to power in Punjab) and we could not submit challans in time,” he had stated.