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TOTAL WAR
Amarinder thrown out of Assembly, VB unleashed on him
The House of Badals goes for a frontal war with the Patiala
Gharana
Sach Kanwal Singh/WSN Bureau
CHANDIGARH: In a
sign of the House of Badals declaring total war against former
Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh, the Punjab Assembly on
Wednesday disqualified him for the rest of his term as an MLA after
indicting him in a multi-crore land scam and asked the Vigilance
Bureau to register a case and present a report within two months.
Parliamentary
Secretary Harish Dhanda, who had headed the probe committee of the
Assembly which had found Amarinder guilty of irregularities in
exempting 32.10 acres of land for private development in Amritsar
during his tenure as chief minister (See separate story), moved a
resolution at 1640 hours (India time) that Amarinder be expelled
from the Assembly and his membership be scrapped. Tikshan Sood of
the BJP seconded Dhanda’s resolution.
The House passed
the resolution to disqualify Amarinder amid slogan-shouting and a
walkout by the Congress MLAs. The Vigilance Bureau will now book
Amarinder Singh and probe the matter.
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 Amarinder Singh is no more an MLA, but will it diminish him as a
political leader? His MLAs are likely to stay loyal, and if the
Congress high command stands by him, he may be back with a
better stature. |
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The Punjab
Assembly’s decision, announced by Speaker Nirmal Singh Kahlon,
ended a suspense over the fate awaiting Amarinder Singh who earlier
in the day had met Governor SFR Rodrigues to submit a memorandum and
said he was expecting to be arrested.
"They (Akali-BJP
combine) will disqualify me from the Assembly, register a case and
arrest me," he had told mediamen a few hours earlier.
His party rival
Rajinder Kaur Bhattal professed support but asked him to come clean
on the allegations. Bhattal's support to Amarinder has always been
doubtful and a near repeat of his similar support for her earlier
when she faced corruption charges during Congress regime. Both often
call each other "My brother" or "My sister" but take pot shots to
undermine the other.
Amarinder said
he will not apply for anticipatory bail. "I am carrying anticipatory
bail plea in my pocket, but I will not use it," Singh said.
Many see the
action against Amarinder Singh as something that may thrust
martyrdom hallo on him. Immediately with his disqualification, the
Patiala Assembly seat falls vacant and this could now be a major
flash point bye-election in
Punjab.
The Election Commission of India was immediately told to move for a
bye-poll.
Amarinder said
he was determined to fight efforts to keep him out of the Assembly
and said whatever was happening was because of vendetta.
"I have put them
in jail in a corruption case, now they want to take action against
me out of vendetta," he said.
There was much
talk during the few hours before the Assembly convened that
Amarinder was likely to be expelled from the House, much of it
fuelled by the SAD decision to issue a whip to its MLAs to be
present in the house during the debate on Wednesday. In the end,
however, no voting was required.
Support from
Congress' top brass for Amarinder was suspicious from the beginning.
Punjab Congress chief Mohinder Kaypee said "The party is with
Amarinder" but added the rider that it was the prerogative of the
Assembly to take penal action against Amarinder.
At the same
time, he added, "The Assembly cannot rake up the issue concerning
the session of the previous Government."
Amarinder of
course never drew power from such leadership but rather from a
strong bunch of MLAs who have stayed loyal to him throughout.
Many had
speculated that disqualification was an unlikely scenario and that
the Badals will not let Amarinder project himself as a martyr but
then with a new Sukhbir Singh Badal brand of politics in vogue,
vendetta has become synonymous with shrewd politicking.
It is still to
be seen how far the BJP will go along with the Akali Dal as
Amarinder had scrupulously avoided touching any former BJP minister
or MLA during his regime, a fact not lost on the party.
The Akalis have
made a lot of capital from the fact that the committee was set up
with the consent of Congress Leader of Opposition Rajinder Kaur
Bhattal. “The list of the Congress MLAs was given by Bhattal. Their
MLAs also attended 15 meetings, but later expressed dissent,” was
the clinching argument.
Amarinder
questioned the committee from the very beginning but the three
Congress MLAs attended its proceedings regularly and only at the fag
end protested when they saw what was coming.
10 September 2008
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