Chandigarh: Punjab Congress leaders Pargat Singh and Sukhpal Singh Khaira on Tuesday questioned the suspension of Khaira from the Punjab Assembly and accused the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government of acting in an undemocratic manner. They also alleged that Congress MLAs were stopped from entering the Assembly premises.
The controversy has led to a fresh exchange between Congress and the ruling AAP, with both sides accusing each other of violating the rules and decorum of the House.
Punjab Congress leader Pargat Singh called the incident unfortunate and said the legislators wanted to ask the Speaker why Khaira had been suspended.
“This is unfortunate. Such things should not happen in an elected system,” Pargat Singh said. He questioned the grounds for the suspension and asked whether a video could be shown to establish that Khaira had violated the decorum of the House.
Pargat Singh Accuses AAP Minister of Crossing the Line
Pargat Singh alleged that Punjab Finance Minister Harpal Singh Cheema had himself violated the Assembly’s decorum by accusing him of having links to the drug trade.
“In fact, it was Harpal Cheema who violated the decorum by accusing someone like me of being associated with the ‘chitta’ (drug) trade,” he said.
He also held both the AAP and the BJP responsible for the situation, pointing to the AAP government in Punjab and the BJP-led government at the Centre.
Referring to Union Home Minister Amit Shah’s remarks on Punjab’s drug problem, Pargat Singh said Shah’s statement that the BJP would take charge and fix the situation suggested that the damage was being caused deliberately.
During the BJP’s ‘Nasha Mukt Punjab Yatra’ programme in Jalandhar on September 30, Shah had accused the AAP government of allowing the trade in ‘chitta’, or synthetic drugs, to flourish openly. He also said the BJP would make Punjab free from the drug trade by December 31, 2029, if voted to power.
Khaira Calls Suspension Unjustified, Raises NDPS Case
Sukhpal Singh Khaira accused the AAP government of acting in an “undemocratic and unconstitutional” manner. He claimed that Cheema had made a false statement in the Assembly by alleging that he was involved in an NDPS narcotics case and implying that he was a drug peddler.
Khaira said the Supreme Court had stayed proceedings in the case against him in June 2024.
“In reality, the NDPS case they fabricated against me was stayed by the honourable Supreme Court of India in June 2024, and the proceedings were halted. So, that accusation was false,” he said.
His claims about the case and the allegations made against him have not been independently established in the statements cited here.
Khaira also accused Cheema of linking him and his family to a firing incident in Nakodar around four decades ago, in which four people were killed.
He said a commission headed by Justice Gurnam Singh was formed after the incident and that its 1986 report was with the state government. Khaira demanded that the report be tabled in the Assembly and that those found guilty be punished, regardless of their family connections.
Khaira Questions Basis of Suspension
Khaira argued that his suspension was based on verbal allegations and questioned how action could be taken against him if his remarks over the past three days were not part of the Assembly’s official record.
He said he had intended to enter the House to question Cheema over what he described as misleading statements.
“Not a single word I have spoken in the Legislative Assembly over the last three days is on the record. If nothing is on the record, how can you suspend someone?” Khaira asked.
Criticising the proceedings, he said the Assembly had been reduced to a “mere concrete structure” and accused the government of undermining the institution.
Harpal Cheema Accuses Congress MLAs of Hooliganism
Responding to the allegations, Cheema accused Congress MLAs of creating a disturbance inside the Assembly and engaging in what he described as hooliganism near the Speaker’s podium.
“Congress MLAs may have won elections two or three times, but today they engaged in hooliganism in the Assembly,” Cheema said. He also accused the Congress of violating the law and order whenever it had been in power.
Cheema denied that opposition legislators had been denied entry to the Assembly. He said everyone had the right to enter and pointed out that four to five Opposition MLAs were still present in the House. He also said Congress leader Partap Singh Bajwa had attended the Assembly, spoken there and then left.
The minister further alleged that several Congress leaders had repeatedly made objectionable remarks against the Dalit community and Scheduled Castes. He cited this as a reason for Khaira’s suspension.
Assembly Suspended Khaira for Remainder of Session
Khaira was suspended on Friday for the remainder of the ongoing Punjab Assembly session after the House passed a resolution moved by Cheema.
The minister accused Khaira of using unparliamentary language against the Chair and deliberately disrupting proceedings. He also referred to Khaira’s conduct during a protest by Congress MLAs in Question Hour.
The resolution was passed by the Assembly, resulting in Khaira’s suspension for the rest of the session. The issue has since triggered a war of words between Congress and the AAP government, with both sides offering sharply different accounts of the events inside the House.