Alliance stumbles over ‘misjudged’ decisions

But the ruckus in the Assembly on Tuesday has set the agenda for many more disruptions and commotion in the last two days. “We don’t see a reason why such an important issue of flailing law and order was not debated on the first working day,” Leader of Opposition Rajinder Kaur Bhattal said. It was Sukhbir Badal’s first session as an MLA in the Assembly,and perhaps he too,would not have expected his maiden session to make headlines for all the wrong reasons.

The genesis of the first day of clashes in Ludhiana,involving migrants and the police,stems out of failure of the official machinery to act in time. An unattended complaint triggered an unjustified violent reaction from the migrants,who held the state to ransom destroying government property and stalling peace. Amid political pressure,purportedly from the saffron party,the state leadership ignored intelligence inputs that alerted the government of possible violence in wake of the discourse by the sect head and self-styled godman Ashutosh Maharaj. A senior leader said,“If the event was permitted,the state should have ensured adequate security in the area to avoid any untoward incident”.

The government misjudged the likelihood of a possibly double whammy given that the discourse by the sect leader took place the very next day when Ludhiana was burning,leaving the industrial hub under curfew for long.