Congress MLAs create ruckus in Punjab Assembly, carry slogans against minister Fauja Singh Sarari

Tribune News Service

Ruchika Khanna

Chandigarh, September 29

The Punjab Vidhan Sabha Session began here on Thursday with the Congress MLAs coming to the House wearing aprons carrying slogans against minister Fauja Singh Sarari.

Congress Legislature Party leader Partap Singh Bajwa demanded that the minister be dismissed from the cabinet and a case registered against him. He said that serving of a show-cause notice by the party to the minister was not enough.

He demanded that the CM give a statement on the issue today.

BJP MLAs Ashwani Sharma and Jangi Lal Mahajan were not present in the House.

Congress MLAs spoke against the horticulture minister, refusing to let the House proceedings go on.

Sukhpal Khaira asked Speaker Kultar Singh Sandhwan to give an undertaking that CM Bhagwant Mann would give a statement on the issue. The Speaker said he could not do this.

Sandhwan asked the Congress MLAs to let the House function as important public interest issues were to be discussed.

Congress MLAs rushed to the Well of the House to protest. They raised slogans against the minister and demanded his sacking.

Then AAP MLAs also started raising slogans against the Congress and called the Congress MLAs the B team of the BJP.

Bhagwant Mann was not present in the assembly at the beginning of the session. Finance Minister Harpal Cheema said the Congress did not want the House to function or discuss public issues.

The Speaker adjourned the House as pandemonium continued.

The House proceedings resumed after 30 minutes with the Congress again creating pandemonium.

The Congress MLAs rushed to the Well of the House after Speaker Kultar Singh Sandhwan asked the Congress MLAs that they owed it to the public to let the House function properly.

The only four MLAs sitting quietly in the House were the three Akali Dal MLAs and a BSP one.

Minister Sarari also sat quietly in the House while all other AAP MLAs were on their feet to protest against the Congress.

The Congress MLAs continued to demand the arrest of Sarari.

FM Harpal Cheema pointed out that the protesting Congress MLAs had not listed even a single question to be asked in the Vidhan Sabha.

He said the Congress MLAs had no agenda as all 47 questions asked during this ongoing Vidhan Sabha were asked by the AAP MLAs.

Later, SAD MLAs walked out of the House after Kunwar Vijay Pratap started talking about the Bargari case investigation.

The Speaker asked the Congress to let the issue of poor SC students be discussed in the House.

Jai Krishan Singh Rouri, who was sitting in the Speaker’s chair, asked the Congress MLAs to go to their seats. Partap Bajwa said they would go if the government allowed discussion on the Fauja Singh Sarari issue. Rouri said let us discuss the important issue of scholarship for poor SC students. The Congress, however, refused to relent.

The Speaker asked the Vidhan Sabha staff to give names of those MLAs who had crossed the floor.

Two of the protesting MLAs — Raja Warring and Vikramjit Chaudhary — had accidentally crossed the floor of the House, while standing in the Well of the House during their protest.

It may be mentioned that floor-crossing amounts to disqualification of the MLA’s membership.

Parliamentary Affairs Minister Dr Inderbir Singh Nijjar moved the motion to disqualify the MLAs. However, the Speaker announced that the motion was disallowed for the time being.

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