After blows inside the House,SAD,Cong trade charges outside

Badal said there was enough time for the Opposition to put across their point but “either they were ill-prepared for a meaningful deliberation,or they just wanted to evade the issue and grab media attention by using the ruckus as a shortcut”.

Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Badal said that as a first-timer in the Punjab Vidhan Sabha,he had been “taken by surprise by the conduct of senior legislators like Bhattal”. “I had chosen to make a statement on the incidents in Ludhiana,the issue which the Congress said it wanted to discuss; then why this ruckus?” he wondered.

Bhattal,meanwhile,wrote to Speaker Nirmal Singh Kahlon and demanded that SAD MLAs Virsa Singh Valtoha,Jagdeep Singh Nakai,Sarabjit Singh Makkar and Inderbir Singh Bularia be expelled for the remaining part of the current session. She added that the Vidhan Sabha Secretariat get a criminal case registered against them.

Congress MLA Kewal Singh Dhillon,whose turban got removed in the scuffle,said Congress MLAs will also meet the Governor on Wednesday. “I will brief Congress president Sonia Gandhi and Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh too about the incident and the current state of affairs in Punjab. This (the removal of turban) is an insult to the entire community,” he added.

The Congress MLA from Abohar,Sunil Jakhar,said,“It is ironic that even after the whole House graciously wished a happy birthday to CM Badal,such a shameful act was carried out by the Treasury benches.” He added that “turban is the symbol of dignity,and the Akalis,who claim to fight for Sikhs’ rights across the world,removed the turban of a public representative. This shows their real face.”

State Congress chief Mohinder Singh Kaypee and Gurdaspur MP Partap Singh Bajwa also condemned the incident.

Meanwhile,SAD leaders,including two senior ministers and a chief parliamentary secretary also asked the Speaker to take action against Congress legislators,including Bhattal. Rural Development Minister Ranjit Singh Brahmpura,Public Relations Minister Sewa Singh Sekhwan and Chief Parliamentary Secretary Jagdeep Singh Nakai called upon the Speaker to expel the Congress leaders “guilty” of violence on the floor of the House.

They also accused the Congress of “orchestrating” the recent violence in Ludhiana,“The Congress was trying to avoid a deliberation over the Ludhiana violence so that its own ‘hidden hand’ behind the incident remains unexposed.”