UGLY SIDE OF ‘HONOURABLE’ MLAS LAID BARE
Friday, 25/09/2015
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CHANDIGARH: Ugly and unrecorded verbal brawls between the opposition Congress and SADBJP legislators dominated the last sitting of the Vidhan Sabha proceedings on Thursday.
The behaviour of two dozen “honourable” legislators from across the fence, especially of the Congress, was akin to street urchins when the House was adjourned and the speaker had left the House. The MLAs were thumping their chests, provoking rival camp members with threatening gestures followed by highly provocative expletives.
This unparliamentary drama was enacted on the floor of the House when the Congress had forced speaker Charanjit Singh Atwal to adjourn the House at 11.31am till noon. The House was adjourned after the Congress had trooped to the well of the House, raising the issue of the suicide by a Bathinda farmer. At this point, chief parliamentary secretary Virsa Singh Valtoha of the SAD and Amrinder Singh Raja Warring (Congress) — also the All India Youth Congress president — were seen shouting something that was drowned in the pandemonium. During the short adjournment, the tension escalated after Warring dared Valtoha for a duel outside the House. Valtoha and other Akali MLAs retaliated in kind.
Led by Warring, other Congress legislators hit out at Valtoha by referring to his past activities during the strife-torn days in Punjab. This led to a section of the members — from both sides — hurling abuses. The situation was so volatile that young MLAs were close to a fistfight. However, Warring was dragged out of the House by his companions, while Valtoha was forcibly moved out of the House by SAD-BJP leaders. Much to the respite of others present in the Vidhan Sabha, peace prevailed finally.
Later, the speaker adjourned the House sine die.
