Hry Speaker seeks Sukhbir's apology for heckling CM

Chandigarh, March 13 Tussle between the Haryana Legislative Assembly secretariat and Punjab MLAs intensified on Saturday with Speaker Gian Gupta seeking an apology from Akali Dal President Sukhbir Badal for confronting Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar by his legislators for demanding a resolution to repeal the three farm laws.

The incident occurred on March 10 within the premises of the building, jointly sharing Punjab and Haryana assembly complexes here.

"Shiromani Akali Dal President Sukhbir Badal should apologise to Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar for blocking his passage, accosting and heckling him and misbehave by his party legislators," Gupta told the media.

On the registration of police case against the legislators, he said a debate on the incident would be held in the Assembly on March 15.

"As per the suggestions of the members of the House, the action would be initiated against the Punjab legislators," he said.

Explaining the incident, the Speaker said, "Akali Dal legislators were sitting in cars much after the Assembly session was over much earlier. Our proceedings were over at around 6.30 p.m. and the Chief Minister was interacting with the media, they suddenly came out of their vehicles and started misbehaving with him," Gupta explained.

"Such incident is really shameful. I spoke to the Punjab Speaker (Rana K.P. Singh) over the incident and he condemned it and also asked me to apologise to the Chief Minister on his behalf," he said, adding "If the (Haryana) legislators demand, an FIR would be lodged against the legislators".

A day earlier, Khattar told the media that he spoke to Badal regarding the incident. "Sukhbir Badal said he was not aware of the incident but he said such incident should not have happened."

The Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) legislators in a statement on Friday said they have always agitated for the welfare of farmers and they would continue to raise their voice against repression meted out to farmers and human rights activists in Haryana even if the Haryana government registered 10 cases against them.

"We will not be cowed down by registration of any case against us as is being threatened by the Haryana Vidhan Sabha Speaker. We are even ready to go to jail for the cause of the farmers. We will continue our agitation against the repressive policies of the Haryana government," SAD legislative party leader Sharanjit Singh Dhillon said here.

The SAD legislators also made it clear that they had done nothing wrong by condemning the "barbaric treatment" meted out to farmers and human rights activists as well as Sikh youth by the Haryana police.

"We used our democratic right to hold a peaceful protest against Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar. We were protesting in our own Vidhan Sabha building premises. The Haryana government is trying to use the same repressive measures against us as it has done with the 'Kisan Andolan'. We are however ready to make any sacrifice for the cause of the 'annadaata'," they said.

The legislators also made it clear that they had raised the issue of inhuman treatment meted out to farmers as well as human rights activists Nodeep Kaur and Shiv Kumar as well as insult to the articles of faith of Ranjit Singh and others in the Punjab Vidhan Sabha Budget session.

"We had demanded that the (Punjab) assembly pass a resolution against the Haryana government besides recommending action against police officials responsible for the torture of human rights activists. We raised the same points with the Chief Minister (Haryana). We were well within our rights to do so," the legislators added.

( With inputs from IANS )