Punjab Special Assembly session: House adjourned in 11 minutes; Opp questions AAP motive, Rs 1-cr loss

On Thursday, the session ensued at 11 am and was adjourned at 11:11 am. After reading the obituary references, the House observed two minutes of silence before Speaker Kultar Singh Sandhwan adjourned the session till 10 am on Friday. CM Mann did not attend the first day of the session.

The slice thin session created a storm in the political arena with the Opposition Congress slamming the AAP government for what it called a “mockery of democracy”.

“This (AAP) government has turned governance into theatre and the Assembly into a stage for scripted drama,” said Partap Singh Bajwa, the Leader of Opposition in the Punjab Assembly. “An 11-minute session at the cost of Rs 1 crore is not just a waste of money. It is a fraud on democracy,” he alleged.

In a statement, Bajwa said that he had formally written to assembly Speaker Kultar Singh Sandhwan, requesting an extension of the session to allow discussion on the law and order and the land pooling scheme. “Yet, instead of addressing these urgent concerns, the AAP government chose to wrap up the day in just 11 minutes,” said Bajwa.
“Even more concerning, Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann was absent from the session,” he said.

Bajwa also questioned the AAP government over its decision to bring a draft bill for harsher punishment against sacrilege acts, saying it has not even provided the Opposition with a copy of the proposed legislation. “I seriously doubt whether a draft even exists. The AAP government is not being run from Chandigarh. It is being remote-controlled from Delhi by Arvind Kejriwal,” he alleged.

Bajwa urged people across Punjab to demand answers from the AAP and CM Mann. “Why was Rs 9.09 lakh per minute of public money wasted? Why is the Assembly being reduced to a political circus,” he asked.

Congress MLA Pargat Singh said, “Many MLAs will go back without even opening their mouths. We should give at least half an hour to each MLA. When (AAP state chief and Cabinet minister) Aman Arora was in Opposition, he brought a lock to the Vidhan Sabha session saying that the Assembly should be locked as MLAs were not given time to speak”.

Suspended Congress MLA Sandeep Jakhar (Abohar) said that it was a mockery of a sitting. “I drove 300 kilometres in the morning to reach on time for the session. I was looking at raising important issues confronting the state. So much has been happening. The state is grappling with drugs, law and order, protests are taking place over land pooling. However, the government did not deem it fit to organise a full fledged sitting. It was content with just reading obituary references.”

Kunwar Vijay Pratap Singh, Aam Aadmi Party’s suspended MLA from Amritsar said that he did not attend the sitting as he knew that it wouldn’t last more than 10 minutes. “It is a special session. They are anyway not going to discuss various issues. That is why I did not think of wasting time. I will try to reach tomorrow,” he added.