SAD demands revocation of suspension of its MLAs from the assembly in the interest of democracy
(Bikram S Majithia appeals to all mlas to oppose FM Manpreet Badal’s lies tomorrow)
(Says CAG report stating State debt set to double had exposed FM’s statement that the State would be brought back to track this year)
(Says SAD suspended in pre-planned way because it was raising issues of the people and only pliant opposition mlas allowed to remain inside)
Amritsar, March 7, 2021: Former minister Bikram Singh Majithia today demanded revocation of the suspension of Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) legislators from the ongoing budget session in the interest of democracy, even as he appealed to all legislators not to listen to lies of the finance minister during presentation of the State budget tomorrow in the same way in which SAD mlas refused to listen to chief minister Capt Amarinder Singh’s lies during the reply to the Governor’s Address.
Addressing a press conference here, Bikram Majithia in his appeal to all legislators cutting across party lines said “if we are to be truthful towards Punjabis we should oppose finance minister Manpreet Badal’s lies tomorrow. The CAG report has already exposed the government by disclosing that Punjab’s debt is set to double and reach the Rs three lakh crore mark. The report has also mentioned that there is hardly any expenditure on health and education and negligible expenditure on infrastructure projects. This nails the lies of the Congress government as well as the announcement made by the finance minister last year that the State economy would be brought back on track”.
Reminding the Congress government that there could not be any democracy minus the opposition, he said the real opposition had been suspended by the Speaker as per the decision taken in the Punjab Congress Bhawan. He said only pliant opposition legislators had been allowed to remain inside the assembly.
Asserting that the SAD had been suspended in a pre-planned and pre-mediated fashion because it was raising the issues of the people which were not to the liking of the Congress party, Majithia said SAD mlas also pointed out the lies being uttered by the chief minister during his reply to the Governor’s Address. “The Speaker – Rana K P Singh then took instructions from the chief minister by resorting to ‘akh-mataka’ and then suspended the SAD legislators. By doing so the Speaker has behaved like a Congressman who has murdered democracy by resorting to partisan conduct”.
Stating that the SAD would not be cowed down by such repressive measures by the “Sarkari Speaker”, Mr Bikram Majithia said “we will continue to raise the burning issues of the people and the injustice done to them by the Congress government outside the Vidhan Sabha in case the Speaker does not revoke our suspension as per the orders of his high command”.
Speaking about the developments in the Vidhan Sabha, Majithia said all the SAD legislators did was object to the lies being uttered by the chief minister. “It was not an issue of one lie, but lie after lie”. Giving examples he said first Capt Amarinder lied that the municipal elections which had witnessed murders, voting by dead men and even an attack on the SAD President, were conducted very peacefully. He said following this the Chief minister spoke about how the “stellar performance” of the government in controlling Covid even though it was a matter of record that the Punjab government’s performance on this score was one of the worst in the country as was exposed by Dr Sukhwinder Kumar who gave the instance of the Health minister getting himself treated from a private hospital. “The chief minister also uttered a lie about waiving off fixed charges for three months to the industrial sector following which it was the responsibility of our member N K Sharma to tell him that these bills had been levied subsequently and were not waived at all besides telling how power tariff had been increased from Rs five per unit to Rs 9.50 per unit for the industrial sector”. He said the chief minister even played politics by hiding his role in finalizing the Agricultural ordinances and mischievously quoting a selected portion of a letter of the SAD President to befool the people besides misrepresenting the role of former minister Harsimarat Kaur Badal who rose to the occasion on the day of reckoning to resign from the union cabinet in solidarity with the farming community.
Majithia said the Speaker did not allow SAD legislators to give the factual position on these issues like asking the chief minister to explain why Congress President Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi had left the country purposely when the Agricultural Bills were being tabled in the house as well as the fixed match played in the Rajya Sabha to ensure the Bills were passed despite the fact that the UPA had more numbers than the BJP. “We on our part made it clear that we had not come to listen to the lies of the chief minister and would raise the issues of promised made to the people be it demanding complete loan waiver for farmers, jobs for youth, Rs 2,500 unemployment allowance, Rs 2,500 old age pension, Rs 51,000 Shagun benefit, tea leaves and sugar for the disadvantaged, restart of the SC scholarship scheme and justice for government employees who were not getting Dearness Allowance arrears and other benefits. We also wanted to ask why the Congress government spent crores of rupees to defend underworld Don Mukhtiar Ansari and wanted an explanation why DGP Dinkar Gupta did not put his foot down besides asking why Ansari was being treated as a State guest in Punjab prisons. We also wanted to know why the government was spending crores to fight the underworld don’s case but was not ready to defend human rights activists Nodeep Kuar and Shiv Kumar besides victims of police barbarity including Ranjit Singh.