Chandigarh, March 11: The Punjab Assembly witnessed a storm on Wednesday as Congress members vacated the House following a row over remarks attributed to MLA Sukhpal Khaira. The walkout was triggered when Speaker Kultar Singh Sandhwan blocked Khaira from speaking until he apologized for comments regarding women volunteers celebrating AAP’s financial assistance schemes.
Khaira affirmed to media persons outside the House that he stood by his original statement and saw no reason to apologize. He asserted that his actions involved sharing existing digital content and declared that the AAP government was intentionally misrepresenting his words to target the Congress party. The disagreement led to a physical standoff near the press area, where AAP women legislators gathered to raise slogans against the opposition.
Leader of Opposition Partap Singh Bajwa affirmed that the Congress sought a formal condemnation of Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann’s own language. Bajwa stated that the Chief Minister had used derogatory labels for women in a recent speech, which the opposition documented in a resolution that the Speaker ultimately declined to entertain. The Congress leader maintained that the treasury benches were using the Khaira issue to divert attention from the Chief Minister’s conduct.
The opposition further challenged the government’s record on health and education. Bajwa stated that while the administration promotes government schools and hospitals, the Chief Minister himself utilizes private medical facilities for treatment. He declared that the discrepancy between the government’s claims and the personal choices of its leaders reflects a lack of confidence in the state’s own infrastructure.
