Uproar in Punjab House over Sidhu Moosewala, Congress legislators stage walkout

Tribune News Service

Rajmeet Singh

Chandigarh, March 9

The fourth day of the Punjab Budget session witnessed a stormy start as AAP and Opposition Congress MLAs engaged in a verbal spat over the sharing of details regarding the cut in the security cover of VIPs, including Sidhu Moosewala, on social media allegedly by “key functionaries” of the AAP government days before his murder.

Law & order issue

• Raja Warring flags plight of Moosewala’s parents seeking justice for their son
• Law & order problem creation of previous governments, says Minister Meet Hayer

The issue dominated the proceedings of the House as the AAP MLAs, in the absence of CM Bhagwant Mann who was away to Amritsar due to the President’s visit, were seen on the defensive when the Congress MLAs tried to nail the treasury benches on the law and order issue. Sloganeering was witnessed as the Congress MLAs walked into the well of the House before staging a walkout.

The counter the Opposition onslaught, Rural Development Minister Kuldeep Dhaliwal, during Zero Hour, charged the Congress and the Akalis with “playing politics on corpses of thousands of Punjabi youngsters” in the 1980s. This led to raising of slogans by the Congress MLAs, which was countered by sloganeering by the treasury benches.

The pandemonium prevailed after Congress MLA Sukhpal Khaira raised the issue of Moosewala’s parents demanding action against those behind the murder of their son. He sought to know why action had not been taken against Baltej Pannu and another AAP functionary. Housing Minister Aman Arora told the House that 29 persons had been named, two gangsters had been killed in a police encounter, six were abroad and the role of another three was under investigation.

“What else can the government do? The gang war did not start after the AAP government came into power. Be it the murder of kabaddi player Sandeep Nangal or Pradeep Premi, shooters are coming from neighbouring states,” said Arora as he defended information about the security curtailment of VIPs on social media. There is no rocket science, he said, adding that on the fateful day, Moosewala did not take his two security men along and also left his bulletproof vehicle behind.PCC chief Raja Warring tried to draw the attention of the House to the murder of NRI Pardeep Singh in Anandpur Sahib on Tuesday. There was uproar in the House as Warring flagged the plight of Moosewala’s parents seeking justice for their son.

Minister Meet Hayer said the law and order problem was the creation of previous governments in the state.

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