Jakhar reminds Badal of the Akali assault on then Speaker Minhas in 1996

Chandigarh, June 22, 2017: Punjab Congress president Sunil Jakhar has hit out at Akali supremo Parkash Singh Badal for taking a high moral stand on the unfortunate incidents that occurred today in the state assembly, conveniently forgetting his party’s obnoxious behavior in the House in the past, in which he himself had actively participated.

Badal seems to have conveniently forgotten how his party legislators had, in June 1986, dragged then Speaker Surjit Singh Minhas from his chair. In the melee, Minhas’ turban had also come off, which Badal not only failed to apologise for but has totally forgotten today, as he sheds crocodile tears for some AAP MLAs who, after themselves brawling in the House, pretended to be seriously injured in Thursday’s fracas, said the PPCC chief.

With his own party MLAs behaving abhorrently in the House not just today but all through the Budget session, and Badal himself failing to turn up even once to check them, it was clearly a well-planned assault on the Speaker’s high office by the opposition, said Jahkhar, alleging a nefarious design by SAD and AAP to target the Chair.

The Akalis have a track record of demeaning Constitutional and democratic institutions, Jakhar said, adding that the entire drama being enacted by SAD and AAP since the start of the Budget session clearly reflected their desperation at their total failure to obstruct the Captain Amarinder government’s successful odyssey of the past three months.

The Akali threat not to allow the House to function till the removal of the Speaker smacks of their mal-intention and shows the extent to which they are prepared to stoop to achieve this objective and gain political and media mileage, said Jakhar.