Cong: Phoolka’s resignation political stunt

Chandigarh, August 11

Questioning the former AAP leader’s motives in instigating legislators to quit over the Bargari issue, several ministers have termed HS Phoolka’s resignation a stunt.

On Saturday, Phoolka asked all MLAs who had raised the Bargari issue in the Assembly to resign. In a joint statement here on Sunday, Cabinet Ministers Tript Rajinder Singh Bajwa, Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa, Sukbinder Singh Sarkaria and Gurpreet Singh Kangar criticised Phoolka for his provocative demand for legislators’ resignation.

They said if Phoolka was genuinely concerned about the issue and its implications, he should have returned the Padma Shri awarded to him by the very government, which had “pressured” the CBI to file a closure report in the Bargari case.

Resigning from the House and asking other MLAs to do the same was just an attempt by Phoolka to divert public attention away from the progress made by the Congress government to take the Bargari and related cases to their logical conclusion, they said. Phoolka’s stand was ludicrous in the extreme and designed to undermine the democratic institution of the Vidhan Sabha, they said. — TNS