The Punjab Assembly Wednesday witnessed unprecedented ugly scenes as opposition Congress members occupied the Chair,manhandled marshals and thrashed plainclothes policemen after the latter raided the Congress Legislature Partys (CLP) office demanding to see the entry pass of a girl who was beaten up in public by police personnel in Tarn Taran district recently and who was present in the Assembly complex. The House also witnessed three adjournments. When it was reconvened,it saw yet another round of lawlessness when agitated Congress MLAs tore papers,flung them towards the Speakers chair and Jagmohan Kang sat on the Speakers chair while Rana Gurjit Singh thumped the table with Speakers mallet. While others pushed and shoved the marshals,Gidderbaha MLA Amarinder Singh Raja Warring slapped a marshal thrice. The Congress members,led by Leader of Opposition Sunil Jakhar,alleged that the police action was intended to evict the 23-year-old girl from the CLPs premises. In a bid to corner the government on law and order situation,the Congress had brought the girl to the Punjab Assembly. Though she was not stopped while entering the Assembly premises with Jakhar,policemen in plain clothes later raided the CLP office asking for entry pass of the girl and her father. Congress MLA Tripat Rajinder Bajwa,who was keeping guard,informed his colleagues who left the Question Hour midway and rushed to the CLP office. A few MLAs,including Kuljit Nagra,Sukhjinder Randhawa,Gurkirat Kotli and Rana Gurjit Singh held two policemen by the hair,and another by the neck and thrashed them when they tried to flee. One of them ran to the adjoining SAD office but was caught and beaten up. They were then held hostage by the MLAs and their staff till they gave their statement to mediapersons and were captured by photographers displaying their identity cards. One of them was Jaspal Singh,a senior intelligence officer in Gurdaspur and the other,Sukhwant Singh Gill,is a commandant. Nearly 50 to 60 of them,both men and women in plainclothes,had circled the CLP office before the incident. Jakhar then produced the girl and her father before the media. The girl said she came to the Assembly as the police were putting pressure on her to reach a compromise with the guilty policemen. CM Parkash Singh Badal described it as a serious breach of security one that could set a precedent for terrorists to enter the Assembly. Speaker Charanjit Atwal denied that he had passed any orders for raiding the Congress office. However,later in the evening,he took a U-turn. I instructed the Secretary,Punjab Vidhan Sabha,to take prompt and appropriate effective action to cleanse the premises of any unidentified and unauthorised persons, he said. Meanwhile,Jakhar said he is ready to face charges for bringing the girl and her father in. Later,state Congress chief Partap Singh Bajwa said the police raid was a murder of democracy.
