Chandigarh: AAP boycotts special House meeting, Congress stages walkout

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, September 5

A special House meeting of the Municipal Corporation (MC) called by Mayor Anup Gupta today to express gratitude to Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) chief S Somanath and Prime Minister Narendra Modi for the successful Chandrayaan-3 landing took an unexpected turn as political parties voiced their discontent.

Only scientists worthy of praise

Only ISRO scientists are worthy of the praise. We boycotted the meeting as the Mayor and officials are ignoring crucial issues. — Damanpreet Singh, AAP

The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) chose to boycott the meeting, citing the MC’s inattention to “crucial issues” facing the city. Congress councillors staged a walkout in protest after noticing the absence of former Congress Prime Ministers’ names in the MC’s resolution celebrating the historic success of the Chandrayaan-3 Mission.

Gurpreet Singh Gabi, a Congress councillor, argued that if the resolution was aimed at acknowledging the success of Chandrayaan-3, it should have included the names such as Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, Indira Gandhi, Manmohan Singh, Vikram Sarabhai and APJ Abdul Kalam for their contributions to the development of ISRO and science.

“Why to thank only PM Modi for all the success when it should be a credit for all leaders,” said Gabi.

When Gabi asked to include Indira Gandhi’s name, it met with opposition from the BJP councillors, leading to heated arguments and the Congress walkout.

While AAP councillors criticised the expenditure of taxpayers’ money on a meeting focused solely on praising the BJP and the PM, Congress councillor Gabi expressed the view that such acknowledgments should have been made during the MC’s general House meeting on August 29, closer to the Chandrayaan-3 landing, instead of spending lakhs on another meeting. “Also, the Mayor should have called the meeting to discuss key issues of MC, including corruption-related matters, lack of funds being faced by the civic body and ban on new tenders for development works,” said Gabi.

AAP councillor and leader of Opposition Damanpreet Singh said, “Only ISRO scientists are worthy of the praise. We boycotted the meeting as the Mayor and MC officials are ignoring crucial issues. Despite banning developmental projects in the city in the wake of the fund crunch, the MC convened a special House after spending lakhs of rupees for just showering praises on the BJP. This is a waste of taxpayers’ money.”

On August 30, the MC Commissioner had ordered a ban on new tenders of developmental projects till December-end, after an amount of Rs 282 crore was ring-fenced for waste management of the city on the orders of the National Green Tribunal.

Meanwhile, all ruling BJP councillors stood one by one hailing the PM leadership and ISRO. BJP councillor Harpreet Kaur Babla said it was under the “leadership of PM Modi that sky is not the limit for us today”. “This is a historic moment when the whole world applauded the achievement. The PM said it was not the success of just India, but of the entire world and humanity,” she said.

Mayor Anup Gupta defended the resolution, congratulating PM Modi, ISRO scientists and the others associated with the project. He particularly highlighted the contribution of Nikhil Anand from Chandigarh, who has contributed to this landmark mission.

“We are proud of the fact that Anand studied at government model schools in Sector 35 and 40, which tells the story of global standards of education in our city. We will meet Anand's family to congratulate them and also meet engineers from PEC to encourage them for future endeavours,” he said.

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