Chandigarh: While the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and the Congress are bound in an electoral alliance in several states, antagonism between the parties’ leaders peaked in the Punjab Assembly Monday after Chief Minister and AAP leader Bhagwant Mann openly threatened Congress MLAs with vigilance inquiries.
The chief minister also got it back in full measure from the opposition MLAs and was seen losing his cool multiple times. At one point, Mann even rushed to the well of the House to lodge his protest.
The altercation broke out when Mann, starting the second day of the Budget Session with a discussion on the Governor’s Friday address, handed over a sealed envelope to Speaker Kultar Singh Sandhwan, saying he had brought him a gift and asked him to open the envelope before the House.
The Speaker found a lock and key in it.
Mann went on to say that the Speaker should lock the door of the Vidhan Sabha to ensure that opposition MLAs continue to sit through the entire proceedings of the House.
He further said the Opposition was “running away” from a discussion on the Governor’s address because they could not bear to hear his (AAP) government’s “path-breaking initiatives”.
Leader of the Opposition Partap Singh Bajwa opposed Mann’s demand by saying that it was illegal and unconstitutional to ask for the locking down of the Vidhan Sabha.
The Speaker explained that the lock was only a symbolic gesture by the chief minister to ensure that the MLAs elected by the people do not waste their time in walking out of the assembly but sit through the sessions and engage in meaningful discussion.
The Opposition then demanded that the Speaker go ahead and try to lock the House, triggering a frontal attack from the chief minister. Taking out another set of lock and key from his pocket, Mann said: “I have bought this other set to lock the other door (of the assembly) and ensure that none of my (AAP) MLAs move out of the house.”
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Verbal duel in assembly
Attacking Bajwa, Mann claimed that senior Congress leaders Rahul Gandhi and Sonia Gandhi met him more often than they met Bajwa.
Mann further challenged Bajwa to talk to his party high command and get the INDIA bloc seat-sharing arrangement (between the AAP and Congress) discarded. “No one in Delhi or even in Punjab listens to what Bajwa has to say,” Mann said, mocking Bajwa.
He also said the “Congress was on its knees” and was “requesting the AAP daily to forge an alliance with it”.
Continuing with his attack on Bajwa, Mann asserted that while “AAP leaders have been eating flour biscuits since childhood, the top leaders of the Congress had gold biscuits smuggled by their fathers”.
“That smuggling file will also be opened,” he told Bajwa.
In strong language and angry gestures, Mann further alleged that “Bajwa wore shawls worth Rs 1.25 lakh and looked down upon AAP MLAs as poor”.
The chief minister got visibly upset when Bajwa retorted that Mann, a former comedian, used to “earn Rs 250 per show as a junior artist with Congress MLA Muhammad Sadiq, a singer-turned-politician”.
“Yes, I used to earn only Rs 250. But that is the power of democracy that a poor man is CM,” said Mann.
“And to rise in showmanship one has to be gifted and talented… Your son has been trying to become an actor and forcing you to launch him into films for so many years but he has got nowhere,” said the CM, referring to Bajwa’s son Arjun, a model-turned-actor.
This was not all. Mann said Bajwa’s dreams of becoming chief minister would never come true. “Since you can never get the real thing, why don’t you come and sit on my chair for half an hour so that you can get the feeling of being a CM,” said Mann.
When Punjab Congress chief Amarinder Singh Raja Warring joined Bajwa in raising slogans against the CM, Mann announced that he would initiate action into allegations that Warring had as transport minister scammed the state in giving out bus body contracts.
The chief minister also chided former AAP leader Sukhpal Khaira, now in the Congress, about changing parties. Khaira retorted to say that he had “given up the dirt that was AAP, but the CM continued to be in it”.
Mann further took a jibe at former minister Sukhjinder Randhawa when the latter talked about AAP “looting the state”.
“You are talking about loot?… Your chief minister has joined the BJP long ago,” said Mann, referring to former Punjab chief minister Captain Amarinder Singh joining the BJP in 2022.
Mann also equated Congressman Navjot Singh Sidhu with a goods train that chugged from Jammu’s Kathua towards Punjab without a driver, calling him “a one-man show who is not bothered about anyone”.
After rudely telling opposition leaders to sit down (“baith ja”) and keep quiet (“chup kar”), Mann was seen complaining to the Speaker about the language used by opposition leaders against him, including the use of the word “tu” (an informal way of saying “you”) by Bajwa.
“I have files on everyone,” the CM said. “It would be better that all of you remain quiet, otherwise I will expose each one of you,” he added.
Talking to media persons outside the assembly, Bajwa said that “Mann was so power drunk that he had no fear of god left”.
.@BhagwantMann ਤੂੰ ਪੰਜਾਬ ਵਿੱਚ ਜਿੱਥੋਂ ਵੀ ਲੋਕ ਸਭਾ ਚੋਣ ਲੜੇਗਾ ਮੈਂ ਤੇਰੇ ਖਿਲਾਫ਼ ਲੜਾਂਗਾ https://t.co/IuZ7vY3fwn pic.twitter.com/BIVp3XhITl
— Partap Singh Bajwa (@Partap_Sbajwa) March 4, 2024
“I have challenged him that if he is the son of his father, he should contest the forthcoming parliamentary elections, and wherever he contests from, I will stand against him,” he said.
After the session, Khaira said on social media that Mann behaved like a “frustrated child”.
“Very saddening to see the lowest & cheapest level of politics of hatred exhibited by @BhagwantMann today in the Vidhan Sabha blatantly threatening & browbeating @INCIndia Mla’s to gag the voices of opposition. He behaved like a frustrated child pointing fingers and fighting with opposition even worse than the village level. I’ve never seen any politician leave aside a Cm stoop to this level of gimmickry.”
Very saddening to see the lowest & cheapest level of politics of hatred exhibited by @BhagwantMann today in the Vidhan Sabha blatantly threatening & browbeating @INCIndia Mla’s to gag the voices of opposition. He behaved like a frustrated child pointing fingers and fighting with… pic.twitter.com/GH7kKSQWA3
— Sukhpal Singh Khaira (@SukhpalKhaira) March 4, 2024
The Speaker adjourned the House for 15 minutes to bring order.
When it re-assembled, Congress MLAs came to the well of the House and started raising slogans against the chief minister and the Speaker. It was only when the Speaker moved to initiate suspension proceedings that order was restored in the House.
(Edited by Nida Fatima Siddiqui)
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