Senior lawyer reiterates decision to quit over Punjab government’s ‘inaction’ against those responsible for 2015 police firing.
Chandigarh: Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) MLA and senior advocate, Harinder Singh Phoolka, has reiterated his decision to resign from the Punjab assembly, a move that is being viewed as not only an attempt to pressurise the Punjab government but also his faction-ridden party unit.
Phoolka has threatened to resign on 17 September over the government’s “inaction” against those responsible for the police firing on Sikh protesters in Punjab in 2015.
On 1 September, Phoolka had issued a 15-day ultimatum to the Captain Amarinder Singh government to book former chief minister Parkash Singh Badal and the former director general of police (DGP) Sumedh Singh Saini for allegedly ordering the firing on the agitating Sikh protesters at Kotkapura and Behbal Kalan in October 2015.
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Firing by the police at Behbal Kalan on a group of Sikhs, protesting the inability of the then Akali Dal-BJP government in the state to nab those responsible for the desecration of the Guru Granth Sahib, had left two people dead.
Aimed at AAP too
Many within the AAP, however, believe Phoolka’s move could also be a sign of his disenchantment with his own party, which had made huge political gains in the state after 2013 — it won four Lok Sabha seats in 2014 and also emerged as the second-largest part in the 2017 Assembly elections.
The party though is now a pale shadow of its original self, with many Punjab leaders blaming Arvind Kejriwal and his Delhi coterie for trying to rule through undemocratic means.
The party’s state unit is already divided into two units, with one (of 8 MLAs out of the total 20), openly defying Delhi leadership’s control. Phoolka had recently tried to get the two sides to bury the hatchet but both sides have dug their heels in.
Sources say Phoolka has been toying with the idea of resigning his seat for quite some time, especially after the eminent lawyer realised that AAP, which he had joined in the hope that it would be different from other mainstream parties, has turned out to be like any other party.
Sources in AAP say that in a bid to placate Phoolka, who has been almost single-handedly fighting the 1984 anti-Sikh riots cases, he may even be offered a Lok Sabha ticket in the next year’s elections.
A calculated risk
In resigning over the emotive issue of desecration of the Guru Granth Sahib, Phoolka is also taking a calculated risk.
His leaving the coveted assembly seat with over three years still to go is expected to ensure his re-election. His move could be perceived as a “sacrifice” for a just cause by the Sikhs.
Phoolka on his part says all that he has been asking is for the Amarinder Singh government to walk the talk. “The CM said on the floor of the house that the Badals are crooks. He said that no one will be spared. Why is then the Congress government shying away from booking the former CM and the former DGP?” he asked.
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Phoolka has also asked five cabinet ministers– Sukhjinder Randhawa, Navjot Singh Sidhu, Charanjit Singh Channi, Manpreet Singh Badal and Tript Rajinder Singh Bajwa— to resign if the government did not act as they were the ones who had led the charge against the Badals during the recently concluded monsoon session of the assembly.