Chandigarh: Pandemonium prevailed on the second day of the ongoing budget session of Punjab assembly on Monday after chief minister Bhagwant Mann handed over an envelope carrying "a lock and key" to the Speaker asking him to lock the Opposition inside the House so that they do not run away during the discussion on the Governor’s address.
The symbolic gesture of Mann instantly triggered an uproar and unruly scenes during the discussion on the governor Banwarilal Purohit’s address as he took on the opposition Congress and asked Speaker Kultar Singh Sandhwan to lock the House from inside so that the opposition did not run away from the discussion.
It may be recalled that the Congress, the principal opposition party, had disrupted the governor’s address on March 1, the opening day of the session – due to which Purohit had to cut short his address. Mann, thus, had sought a discussion on the issue of disruption of the governor's address at the onset and not with traditional question hour or zero hour.
Mann took a jibe at the Opposition saying that he would now speak the truth and they (opposition) would not tolerate it and hence needed to lock the House doors so that they did not run away.
Irked by Mann’s remark, leader of opposition (LoP) Partap Singh Bajwa held that the chief minister had crossed all the limits of absurdity and that on what constitutional ground did he attempt to get the House locked. Bajwa and Mann were repeatedly seen shouting at each other at the top of their voices.
The House sank in din as Bajwa along with all the Congress MLA went to the well of the House, shouting slogans against the ruling AAP government, also accused Mann of creating unnecessary theatrics instead of discussing real issues.
"Was that the kind of behaviour a CM was supposed to act? He has apparently gone out of his senses. He has certainly crossed all the limits of absurdity," Bajwa alleged while interacting with newspersons.
Led by Bajwa, the Congress members again sparred with Mann and the treasury benches when the former claimed that Mann had allegedly humiliated a Dalit legislator of Congress saying that he was having a seizure. Bajwa held that the MLA Sukhwinder Singh Kotli, was simply trying to remind the chief minister of his promise to have a Dalit member as a deputy chief minister following which Mann had mocked him saying that he was having "seizures" (fits).
Such was the chaotic situation in the assembly that the Congress MLAs could be seen repeatedly going to the well of the House till around 2 pm following which they walked out of the House.
