Singer MLA: Badal ‘ragged’ me to divert attention from issue

Putting the onus of the mistake on Badal,the Bhadaur MLA said,“The CM with more than 40 years of experience in politics made a bigger blunder by urging me repeatedly to sing a song.”

During the Zero Hour on the last day of the Budget Session on Friday when Sadique sought to raise the issue of a college in his constituency,the CM interrupted him saying,“Anything can happen in zero hour. Can we also listen to Sadique sing?”

The Speaker,Charanjit Singh Atwal,too asked Sadique to “please sing.”

“The CM’s satirical remarks after I finished singing shows what he thinks about good music and great poets. I sang few lines of Prof Mohan Singh’s patriotic poem – Bharat hai vang mundari,vich nag Panjab da (Punjab is the gem in the ring called Bharat) – in which the poet urged that we all should strive to create the Punjab of Guru Nanak’s era. But after listening to the CM’s remarks I had immediately walked out of the house,” Sadique added.

While the Speaker had appreciated Sadique’s song,Badal commented that the Opposition should have brought orchestra party in the House.

The folk-singer turned legislator also took on the Revenue Minister Bikram Singh Majithia,who had lambasted the Congress “for reducing the sanctity of Vidhan Sabha’’.

“Next time,before speaking anything,the CM must consult Majithia. While Majithia is claiming that sanctity of the House has been reduced due to this episode,he must ask Badal why such a request was floated in the Assembly.”

Sadique said the CM urged him to sing to divert the attention of the House from the serious issues on which the Opposition had cornered him and to which he had no answers.