CHANDIGARH: The Vidhan Sabha on Thursday forgave Leader of the Opposition Rajinder Kaur Bhattal for denigrating the chair of the Speaker during the last session after the House unanimously requested him to take a lenient view.
The committee of privileges of the House had indicted Bhattal for belittling the chair of the Speaker and recommended her seven-day suspension.
Parliamentary Affairs Minister Tikshan Sud tabled the report and said Bhattal was held guilty of denigrating the chair on December 10 last year.
The report said Bhattal, while waving a copy of a newspaper (Hindustan Times), had pointed towards Speaker Nirmal Singh Kahlon and said he had no right to sit on the chair as a report said he had been indicted by the Central Bureau of Investigation in a corruption case.
The committee said it was serious disrespect to the chair and Bhatal should be punished.
All Congress legislators had on December 10 entered the House carrying copies of HT and when the Speaker arrived, they waved these and demanded his resignation.
HT had reported that the Punjab government did not grant sanction to the CBI for prosecuting Kahlon, indicted in a corruption case for the recruitment of over 900 panchayat secretaries when he was a minister in the Akali government in 2001.
BJP Minister Manoranjan Kalia suggested that the seven day suspension was too harsh and should be reduced to two days. Kalia also suggested that Bhattal should apologize.
The entire Opposition was quick to term the report illegal and arbitrary.
Congress MLA Sunil Jakhar said the report was “fascist, sfeudalistic, authoritarian and done in a manner that could only be expected from people drunk with power”.
“Instead of empowering women, you are throwing them out of the House. The SAD-BJP alliance due its sheer majority also suspended Capt Amarinder Singh on frivolous charges. It seemed the case has been decided in a kangaroo court where no justice could be expected”, said Jakhar.
Congress MLA Jassi Khangura said Bhattal alone could not be punished as the entire Opposition was sup porting her. “Let the entire Opposition be suspended,” said Khangura.
Lal Singh said the report was illegal as according to rule~ it had to be tabled in the House in a month, No extension was taken.
Avtar Singh Brar and Jakhar requested the Speaker to display large-heartedness and reject the report, or it would set a bad trend.
The Speaker finally agreed to the unanimous request and asked Sud to move a motion to grant pardon to Bhattal.
Bhattal admitted that what ever she did it happened out of her anger as the members of the Opposition were not allowed to speak in the House.
She said if the Speaker was already sitting on the chair, she would not have passed any remarks.
SOURCE-HT
