The first Budget Session of the Punjab Vidhan Sabha started on a stormy note on Wednesday. The legislators of Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) and Bains Brothers staged a walk-out opposing inclusion of former State Police chief KPS Gill’s name in the obituary references.
Even as the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) too opposed the move to pay tributes to “super-cop” Gill, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) preferred to maintain a strategic silence.
Soon as the Speaker, Rana KP, read out the Gill’s name while mentioning the obituary references, SAD president Sukhbir Badal interrupted. Amidst sloganeering by the SAD MlAs, Sukhbir said: “If you need to give an obituary reference, why not to any social worker or politician instead of a person who killed innocent youthIJ”
Protesting, the Akali MlAs walked out of the House, while their alliance partners, the BJP, did not budge. The three BJP MlAs neither stood up to express solidarity, nor opposed the move.
As the Congress MlA and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Brahm Mohindra requested the Speaker to once again read the obituary reference to Gill as it was not audible amidst pandemonium created by the Akali MlAs.
Agreeing to the demand, Speaker started reading out obituaries to Gill against, but this time it was lok Insaaf Party (lIP) MlA from Atam Nagar Simarjit Singh Bains who registered his protest.
Speaker Rana KP continued to read the obituary ignoring the protest by Simarjeet and his brother and ludhiana South MlA Balwinder Singh Bains who raised slogans of “shame shame”.
Bains Brothers called the former DGP “qatil (murderer) Gill” before walking out separately. “How can such a reference be made for an officer who outraged the modesty of a woman IAS officer,” Balwinder said, referring to Gill’s conviction in infamous Rupen Deol Bajaj case.
AAP MlA from Bholath Sukhpal Khaira attacked the Akali Dal for adopting “double standards” on the Gill issue. He stated that the police officers, close to KPS Gill, were given important positions under SAD-BJP government.
At the same time, Khaira took a dig at the treasury benches for inserting Gill’s name in the obituaries despite him being “involved in human rights violation”. All this while, his colleague and the leader of the Opposition HS Phoolka maintained silence.
Gill, tagged as ‘super cop’, was accredited with wiping out militancy from Punjab. Serving as the state’s police chief twice, Gill breathed his last on May 21 in New Delhi.
SAD has already written to the Chief Minister, Capt Amarinder Singh, and the Speaker Rana KP Singh on Tuesday, demanding Gill’s name not be included in the obituary references.
They argued that Capt Amarinder has recently admitted that 21 militants, whose surrender he had arranged in the early 1990s, were killed in a fake encounter by the Punjab Police-an incident which had happened during Gill’s tenure as the state Director General of Police (DGP).
House remembers Khanna
Vidhan Sabha also paid tributes to renowned Bollywood actor and BJP MP Vinod Khanna. Besides, the House also remembered freedom fighters Nishan Singh, Gurdev Singh and Banta Singh, martyr Paramjeet Singh and CRPF inspector-cum-company commander martyr Raghubir Singh, constable lovepreet Singh, agriculture scientist Dilbagh Singh Athwal, and Kirpal Singh Khirnia.
Tributes paid to farmers who committed suicide, those died of drugs
Other than the eminent personalities, martyrs and freedom fighters, the Punjab Vidhan Sabha also paid tributes to the farmers who have committed suicide, and those who have died of drugs.
AAP’s MlA from Talwandi Sabo Baljinder Kaur, raising the issue of 70 farmers who have committed suicide since the new assembly was elected in March, demanded that obituary reference should also be made for them.
Agreeing to her demand, Capt Amarinder requested the Speaker to include them in the list too.
Congress MlA from Amritsar East and the Cabinet Minister Navjot Singh Sidhu too demanded inclusion of the victims of drug menace.
The House paid homage to 10 eminent personalities from different walks of life, farmers, and drug victims who had passed away, during the intervening period between the two sessions,.
Speaker Rana KP Singh passed a resolution for conveying the condolences of the House to their respective families, and observed a two-minute silence in the memory of departed souls as a mark of respect before being adjourned for the day.