Congress MLAs sleeps inside the Punjab assembly house in protest.
There was high drama in the Punjab Assembly on Monday as 32 Congress lawmakers staged a protest inside the House for over three hours even after the Speaker adjourned it for the day.
The Congress lawmakers were adamant over continuing the debate over their no-confidence motion but Speaker Charanjit Singh Atwal abruptly ended House proceedings by seeking a voice vote on the motion.
The Congress had moved the no-confidence motion on several grounds, including the SYL canal issue, deteriorating law and order situation, emergence of mafia groups and rampant corruption. The motion was defeated.
While the Akali and BJP lawmakers left the House, the Congress lawmakers staged a protest by continuing with the debate even as the assembly staff switched off the power of the House. With the air-conditioners and fans turned off, the lawmakers, including four women, were seen using paper fans to beat the heat.
Fatehgarh Sahib lawmaker Kuljit Nagra told NDTV that the opposition MLAs were denied even the basic facilities and this exposed the inhuman face of the Badal government.
Congress Punjab state unit president Captain Amarinder Singh also condemned the arm twisting tactics of the authorities to force their legislators to lift the dharna by switching off the lights and the air-conditioners. "The government should not have run away from the debate and should have faced the opposition particularly when common man was feeling unsafe," he said.
Meanwhile, Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal accused Congress of "running away" and "deliberately sabotaging" the debate in the assembly.
"Perhaps they had sought permission for a no confidence motion only as a publicity gimmick and did not seriously think that the government would show such prompt readiness to accept the challenge. In the end, they were just inventing excuses to run away," he said.
Though the Badal government enjoys a comfortable majority in the 117-member house with a strength of 72 lawmakers, two rebel Akali lawmakers and Navjot Kaur Sidhu of the BJP, had forced the Shiromani Akali Dal to issue a whip to all its MLAs to be present in the house on Monday.