Chandigarh, Apr 30 (PTI) Punjab Congress president Amrinder Singh Raja Warring on Thursday slammed the AAP government in the state and said that a one-day special session of the state Assembly to mark the ‘Labour Day’ was a “characteristic theatrical diversionary tactic” as it was faced with an “existential threat” after defection of seven MPs.
“Besides, it is too little and too late,” he remarked.
The AAP government has convened a special session of the Vidhan Sabha on the occasion of Labour Day on May 1 to pay homage to the working class of the state.
Warring asked what purpose the special session will serve for labourers, when the government is “on the last leg of its tenure and that too crippled”.
“When the government is not sure of its own survival and existence, what can it do for the labourers?” he asked, while noting that the AAP has been holding special sessions so frequently to “divert” attention and “shrug off” its responsibility that such sessions have lost their “speciality”.
“You don’t hold special sessions more frequently than the regular sessions,” he remarked.
Warring asked the government what it had done for the labourers during the last four years.
“The fact is that Punjab under the AAP government was the worst-performing state on MGNREGA,” he claimed, while disclosing that not even fifty per cent registered labourers had been covered under the scheme during the last four years and not even one per cent of them had got 100-day mandatory work.
The AAP’s purpose in holding the session was not to deliberate or pass any special law for the welfare of labourers, but to “dodge and divert” the public attention from the “existential crisis” it faced after the defection of its seven Rajya Sabha members, six of whom are from Punjab.
Maintaining that this special session will also end up as a “damp squib” like the previous ones, the Ludhiana MP said, he did not expect anything from it, except a token expression of concern for the welfare of the labour without any substance or a time-bound roadmap.
“Don’t think you can mislead the workers with that”, he told the AAP, adding, “You may fool some people some times, but you can’t fool all the people all the time”.
On April 24, the Aam Aadmi Party suffered a jolt when seven of its 10 Rajya Sabha MPs — Raghav Chadha, Ashok Mittal, Sandeep Pathak, Harbhajan Singh, Rajendra Gupta, Vikramjit Sahney and Swati Maliwal — quit and merged with the BJP, alleging that the party had strayed from its principles, values and core morals. Six of the seven MPs who quit AAP were from Punjab.
Congress MP Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa too alleged that the AAP fears losing power, which is why it has “dramatised” the special session on Labour Day.
Under its cover, Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann is planning to conduct a floor test to save the government, Randhawa claimed, adding that Mann is aware that several of his MLAs are in touch with the BJP and may switch sides.
He claimed that the AAP government will not survive and that President’s Rule will be imposed in the coming days.
Randhawa said the government should focus on saving Punjab instead of saving its power and ensure strong security arrangements for the people.
The former deputy chief minister further questioned the AAP government, asking why and on whose advice the preventive detention of Khadoor Sahib MP Amritpal Singh under the National Security Act was ended.
Punjab Police on April 23 arrested Amritpal in the 2023 Ajnala Police Station attack case after his detention under NSA ended on April 22.
The MP is currently lodged in a jail in Assam.
Meanwhile, the Punjab BJP will organise a ‘Janta di Vidhan Sabha’ (People’s Assembly) on May 1 at a venue adjacent to its office here.
“The programme is being positioned as a significant public forum running parallel to the special session convened by the ruling AAP on the same day. Through this, the BJP aims to foreground key public issues and concerns amid the prevailing political scenario in the state,” a party release stated.
According to BJP leader Anil Sarin, the programme is being organised at a time when special sessions of the Punjab Assembly are allegedly being convened to serve “political interests” instead of public welfare.
It has become essential to create a platform where the voice of the people can be heard and represented effectively. ‘Janta di Vidhan Sabha’ aims to bring public concerns to the forefront and reinforce democratic accountability, he added. PTI CHS HIG HIG
This report is auto-generated from PTI news service. ThePrint holds no responsibility for its content.