Congress attack lost sting as Assembly session progressed

The performance of the main Opposition Congress was not along the expected lines during the eight-day Budget session of the Punjab Assembly that concluded on Friday.

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Barring Leader of the Opposition Partap Singh Bajwa and Jalandhar Cantonment MLA Pagat Singh, most party MLAs failed to exhibit aggressive posturing in raising burning issues of Punjab.

After aptly raising the issue of the brutal assault on serving Army Colonel Pupshinder Singh Batth and the crackdown on farmers during the Governor’s address, the party failed to sustain the momentum.

The Congress did try to demolish the ‘bulldozer justice’ narrative of the AAP government as part of its drive against drugs.

Though Bajwa flagged the issue of AIG Rajit Singh’s alleged links with “drug mafia” and sought the dope test of the CM and all MLA under a statewide drug census, the party could not sustain the pressure.

Rather, the floor strategy of the ruling AAP to prevent fire brand leader and Bholath MLA Sukhpal Khaira to speak and instead give time to MLA Pargat Singh and then Independent MLA Inder Partap Singh clicked to their advantage as the Congress staged a walkout.

The ruling party used the opportunity to “play out” the differences among Congress MLAs as when the Congress members staged a walkout for not allowing Khaira to speak. Kapurthlala MLA Rana Gurjeet Singh did not join the protest.

His colleagues were seen persuading him to join the walkout, which he reluctantly joined. Rana and Khaira have been at loggerheads in the past. Instead, Speaker Kultar Singh Sandhwan allowed Independent MLA Rana Inder Partap, son of MLA Rana Gurjeet, to speak, further provoking Khaira.

The entire zero hour during Thursday’s proceedings, which could have been used to question the shortcomings in the Budget, saw the party thrice staging a walkout over the issue.

A party leaders said each of the MLAs was supposed to take strongly on the ruling party as had been discussed in a meeting chaired by Bhupesh Baghel, All India Congress Committee General Secretary incharge for Punjab. Defending performance of the party in the House, Bajwa questioned the time given to the Opposition to raise the issues.

“The rules for the conduct of the business were being violated. After giving time, Sukhpal Khaira was not allowed to speak. Our voice was stifled throughout the proceedings on the basis of brute majority. The issues that we wanted to raise in the House were raised outside the House after we were not allowed to speak,” he said.