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Assembly disqualifies Amarinder

— Photo: Akhilesh Kumar

FACING A STORM: The former Punjab Chief Minister, Amarinder Singh, talking to mediapersons in Chandigarh on Wednesday after the Assembly ruling.

CHANDIGARH: The Punjab Assembly on Wednesday unseated the former Chief Minister, Amarinder Singh, and disqualified him for the remaining tenure of the 13th Vidhan Sabha.

The decision came after a nine-member House committee indicted Capt. Singh and three others for their alleged involvement in corruption and irregularities in granting exemptions for transferring 32.10 acres to a private developer in Amritsar district.

While the report was tabled by Chairman of the House Committee Harish Rai Dhanda on September 5, through an “Addendum” it was again introduced after the Assembly conducted its legislative business on Wednesday.

Minister for Parliamentary Affairs Tikshan Sud, while moving the motion, recommended that Capt. Singh be unseated and disqualified for the remaining tenure of the House, and that through the Chief Secretary the Election Commission be informed that the seat had fallen vacant.

Accepting that the House did not command the required resources, the report recommended that a case be registered and investigations entrusted to the Punjab Vigilance Bureau and it be directed to submit a report to the Speaker within two months.

Besides Capt. Singh, the others indicted were the former Ministers, Chaudhary Jagjit Singh and the late Ragunath Sahai Puri, and Chairman of the Amritsar Improvement Trust Jugal Kishore Sharma.

While the recommendations were passed by the House through voice vote amid thumping of desks from the Treasury benches, the Opposition created a pandemonium as the Congress members entered the well of the House, raising slogans against the government.

The Congress members were seen jostling with the Watch and Ward staff before walking out in protest. The Akali MLAs formed a protective circle around Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal.

Later, outside the Assembly, Capt. Singh said he would utilise every means to undo this “injustice” to him. His counsel would file a petition in the Punjab and Haryana High Court against the decision of the Assembly.

Capt. Singh said the ruling Akali-BJP alliance had set a retrogressive precedent. In future, majority in the House could be used by the ruling party to target the Opposition members. “If this is what the Badal father-son duo wants in politics, so be it.”

Flanked by his MP wife Preneet Kaur, who witnessed the proceedings from the Speaker’s gallery, Capt. Singh said all efforts by Mr. Badal and his son Sukhbir Singh to put him behind the bars were foiled in the court of law.

“They have misused majority, committed contempt of court and lowered the prestige of the House in furthering their personal agenda of vendetta. They have not gotten over the fact that a trial court had placed them in judicial custody during our government’s tenure,” he said.

Leader of the Opposition Rajinder Kaur Bhattal told journalists that the Congress staged two walkouts as the government had refused to entertain a debate on more vital issues such as “mishandling of the recent flood situation where many lives were lost and property worth crores of rupees lost, the violence during the recent elections to the local bodies and acts of violation of human rights.” Earlier, she led a delegation of Congress MLAs to the Governor, seeking the dismissal of the Badal government.

New Delhi Special Correspondent writes:

The Congress has said the decision to terminate the membership of Amarinder Singh, from the Assembly was a case of “political vendetta.” While emphasising that the party was not commenting on the proceedings of the Assembly, AICC general secretary Margaret Alva said the move by the Shiromani Akali Dal was to harass the Opposition.

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