Punjab Governor Banwarilal Purohit's 'off script' remarks catch AAP MLAs off guard

Tribune News Service

Ruchika M Khanna

Chandigarh, March 3

In spite of the numbers in the Vidhan Sabha being in its favour (92 of the total 117 MLAs), the ruling Aam Aadmi Party was caught off guard on the first day of the Budget session today by Opposition charges and “off script” utterances made by Governor Banwarilal Purohit.

With the Governor indirectly admonishing “his” government, the ruling party MLAs were grappling till the end of the day on how this had emboldened Opposition parties and how they should deal with the backlash they expect during the discussion on Governor’s Address, scheduled for Monday.

In the afternoon, after obituary references and just before the Business Advisory Committee meeting, a meeting was held in the office of Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann in the Vidhan Sabha, where Speaker Kultar Singh Sandhwan, ministers and MLAs were present. It was decided that all party MLAs be told to ensure their attendance in the House during the discussion on Governor’s Address. The plan was to outdo leaders of the Opposition, especially as talk of an informal meeting between LoP Partap Singh Bajwa and BJP MLA Ashwani Sharma today after Governor’s Address gained steam. The Treasury Benches also planned to target the Congress on the issue of corruption.

Three ministers said they could sense that curtains had not come down on the ongoing tussle between the Governor and their government, going by today’s developments. Though Speaker Sandhwan, CM Mann and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Dr Inderbir Singh Nijjar accorded a warm reception to the Governor upon his arrival in the Vidhan Sabha, they were seemingly not prepared to be “picked on” when the Governor initially acceded to the Opposition party’s request of not using the term “my government”, and later also indirectly chided the government by saying “Caesar’s wife should not be above suspicion, but also seen so”.

The fact that the Governor also hinted that he hoped that the government would reply to his questions, also made many in the government and the Treasury Benches “uncomfortable”. Though some felt that the Governor had been “instigated” by the Congress and a privilege motion be moved against those disrupting the speech, it was later decided that the Treasury Benches would have to get aggressive against the Opposition MLAs on Monday.

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