A day after ‘turban tossing’ incident, the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) — BJP combine and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on Friday registered their protests in Punjab Vidhan Sabha in their own unique ways.
SAD-BJP MlAs came to the House holding placards and wearing black gowns as a mark of protest against “disrespect to the turban” with its non-Sikh legislators, including NK Sharma, Pawan Kumar Tinu, Som Parkash, too sporting the turban.
AAP MlAs and lone member of its ally, lok Insaaf Party (lIP), too came with placards in their hands, with its two “suspended” MlAs — AAP’s Sukhpal Singh Khaira and lIP’s Simarjit Singh Bains — protesting outside Vidhan Sabha building holding huge placards alleging Congress of owning sand-land mafia.
later, they held a mock assembly outside the House, besides setting up a symbolic “shop” of cartelised sand.
Soon as the House proceedings started on the last day of the budget session, both SAD-BJP combine and AAP-lIP intervened and sought an apology from the Speaker Rana Kanwar Pal Singh for treatment meted out to AAP MlAs wherein turbans of two of its members were tossed, leaving some of them injured.
Amidst loud sloganeering by the opposition members, the leader of Opposition HS Phoolka and SAD president Sukhbir Badal demanded a debate on Thursday’s incident describing it as “denigration of Sikh principles”.
Speaker asked the Opposition members to stop raising slogans while assuring them to consider their demand after the Question Hour.
Sticking to their demand, SAD-BJP MlAs trooped into the well of the House, followed by AAP, and continued sloganeering even as the Speaker decided to continue with the question hour.
Minutes after, SAD-BJP MlAs walked out of the House while AAP MlAs held their ground, only to stage a walk out after few minutes shouting slogans.
Punjab Speaker on Thursday had ordered that all 19 Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) MlAs be forcibly evicted from the Vidhan Sabha. Marshals then physically lifted the MlAs, holding them by their arms and legs, causing injuries to some.
The turbans of at least four — Pirmal Singh Dhaula, Manjit Singh Bilaspur, Jai Kishan Singh Rodi and Amarjit Singh Sandoa — were flung into the air, triggering a controversy over the “insult” to the Sikh symbol.
I stand by my words, ‘goonda’ Speaker should apologise: Sukhbir
Maintaining that he stood by his words of calling the Speaker Rana KP Singh a “goonda”, SAD president Sukhbir Badal on Friday said that the Speaker should tender an apology for disrespecting the turban — the symbol of Sikhism, and female MlAs.
Sukhbir, at the same time, made it clear that their fight was of principles and not against any particular party. “If the same thing had happened with Congress MlAs, if their turbans were tossed, or female members were treated like this, we would have hold their hand too...it’s not about AAP or SAD,” he said.
SAD chief pointed that after a MlA was elected Speaker, he did not belong to any party. “He became the custodian of the House...but Rana KP has resorted to goondagardi...Such a role of Speaker was not seen before,” he said.
Sukhbir Badal has asked the Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh to take example from his predecessor Parkash Singh Badal and apologise from the entire House by taking all responsibility of Thursday’s incident upon himself.
Sukhbir also lashed out at the Chief Minister for saying that the AAP MlAs had themselves removed their turbans. “He is justifying everything that the Speaker has done,” he added.
Privilege Motion against Sukhbir
Punjab Vidhan Sabha, sans opposition, passed a privilege motion against SAD president and Jalalabad MlA Sukhbir Badal for “deliberately violating the rules” and “disrespecting” the Chair by speaking “unparliamentary” and offensive words against the Speaker.
The breach of privilege motion was moved by Parliamentary Affairs Minister Brahm Mohindra, which was supported by Sultanpur lodhi MlA Navtej Singh Cheema and Faridkot MlA Kushaldeep Singh Dhillon.
The motion stated that the opposition members indulged in objectionable behaviour like disrupting the Question Hour, floor crossing, sloganeering, using denigrating words against the Speaker, that hang our head in shame. It added that unparliamentary words were used against the Speaker on electronic and social media.