AAP women MLAs seek Sukhpal Khaira’s apology

Outnumbered and outshouted, Punjab Congress MLAs had little choice but to walk out of the Punjab Vidhan Sabha today, even as ruling Aam Aadmi Party’s women MLAs first sought Congress Bholath MLA Sukhpal Singh Khaira’s apology inside the House and then followed him and his other colleagues outside the House.

The incident unfolded when Speaker Kultar Singh Sandhwan asked Khaira to apologise for his comments against women celebrating the grant of the monthly financial assistance by the Punjab Government. Khaira refused to apologise and his colleagues asked the Speaker to first let him explain his position.

Denied permission, they walked out. However, the MLAs were in for a rude shock as the AAP women MLAs, including Saravjit Kaur Manuke, Baljinder Kaur, Inderjit Kaur Mann, Jeevanjot Kaur and Amandeep Kaur, followed them outside and then formed a circle around them as the Congressmen tried to put across their point. The Congress MLAs accused the ruling AAP of twisting facts to blame Khaira for making disrespectful comments against women.

The women MLAs raised slogans against the Congress and Khaira, calling them anti-women and demanding an unconditional apology. A minor argument ensued between the AAP MLAs and Congress MLA Avtar Henry Junior, with the latter asking them whether they felt that CM Bhagwant Mann had also insulted women when he reminisced about his “friend” in college during a public event recently. However, Henry was pulled away by other Congress leaders.

The Congress MLAs then went to the party office inside the Vidhan Sabha, where the Leader of the Opposition, Partap Bajwa, said a resolution should have been brought against Mann for his “disparaging” comments against women.

Incidentally, the resolution moved by them was rejected by the Speaker. “In this resolution, we had accused the CM of using words like “patola” “tuhadi bhabi” “bharind” while addressing a group of women on Sunday,” said Bajwa outside the House.

He said AAP claimed that the main focus of the government was on education and health. “However, neither do its leaders’ children go to government schools, nor does anyone from the ruling party rely on government health facilities, which, it claims, are world class,” Bajwa said, adding that “the CM himself seeks treatment in a private hospital.”

Khaira, who was not allowed to speak in the House, told mediapersons outside the House that he had never insulted any woman. “I only shared a reel made by a Haryana-based YouTuber, Dhanoa. “The “spin doctors” of AAP have twisted facts to write their own script against me and the Congress. I had only quoted the YouTuber in an interview, which has been blown out of proportion,” he said.