11 days that pushed state politics back by a decade

Speaker Charanjit Singh Atwal organised an all party meeting at the beginning of the session and the Leader of Opposition,Sunil Jakhar,had announced that the session will be unique and the Congress will work in collaboration with the treasury benches for the common goal of Punjab’s progress.

However in a complete reversal,attributed to its new chief,Pratap Singh Bajwa,the Congress brought the Tarn Taran police brutality victim to the House to “highlight” her cause. The Congress went the whole hog,even beating up one of the Assembly ward and watch staff on duty when some plainclothes policemen tried to stop them from entering the Assembly. The same afternoon Congressmen created a major ruckus in the House over the issue.

The Akalis showed uncharacteristic restraint,having learnt lessons from the last session where SAD’s Bikram Singh Majithia was heard hurling choicest of abuses against a Congress MLA.

The Speaker chose to suspend nine Congress MLAs for a day and also got an FIR registered against those who had beaten up the on duty policeman. Though this should have been enough,Akalis sought more blood and forced the Speaker to suspend them for the entire session. In protest,the Congress boycotted the whole session.

The treasury benches had it easy from there on. Not one complained of lack of challenge or criticism from the opposition benches.

The Chief Minister,Parkash Singh Badal,came out every bit of the shrewd statesman that he is during the session,requesting the Congressmen to come back to the House. In the same breath,he,however,made it clear that the apology was a must.

The Congress’s refusal to apologise for the behaviour of its MLAs made it miss out on the scores of opportunities it would have got to corner the government on various other issues,includimg the discussion on the budget and finances,the CAG’s report and hordes of important bills that would affect the state’s population.

The Congress’s mock assembly,however,proved to be a hit as the MLAs managed to raise several important issues.

Sukhbir,BJP begin work for ’14 LS polls

Giving a clarion call to unitedly fight and decimate Congress from the country’s political map of,Deputy Chief Minister and president of Shiromani Akali Dal,Sukhbir Singh Badal,Monday said that he owes the success of nine successive elections to the hardwork and determination of resurgent workers of the party.

Addressing the SAD general house meeting,Sukhbir said: “I have no magic wand to win these elections as being projected by media,but I could achieve these successive victories just because of untiring and united efforts of my grass-root level workers,who remained in electoral battle for months leaving behind their families.”

Announcing the beginning of organisational elections,Badal said that SAD has begun a comprehensive,transparent and hi-tech membership drive. The drive will till May 15. The organizational setup of the party will be announced in the first week of June.

Stressing upon the need of unfiltered feedback,Badal said that the party will be organising a two- day training camp for workers at Sri Anandpur Sahib on April 22.

Sahyog project

Meanwhile,the BJP national general secretary J P Nadda Monday directed all ministers and newly nominated state office bearers to gear up for the Lok Sabha 2014 elections and laid out elaborate strategy to increase party-grass root worker interaction under the Sahyog project.

In the city to preside over meeting of newly constituted BJP Punjab team,Nadda asked party leaders to ensure that they meet grass-root level workers in all districts.

BJP state president,Kamal Sharma,said that under the Sahyog program,senior party leaders and BJP ministers have fixed weekly days at the party headquarters.