Post-House ruckus, Cong screens, makes CDs of Akali minister’s ‘expletives’

Aired ive by two TV channels, including one owned by the ruling family, the expletives hurled by an Akali minister during debate on law and order in the Punjab Assembly are now getting a public screening. Also uploaded on social networking site YouTube, the opposition Congress, which showed the video footage on big screens at Sector 17 in Chandigarh on Thursday, now plans to dispatch the CDs to its district units for publicity.

Defying gag orders of Assembly Speaker Charanjit Atwal, Leader of Opposition Sunil Jakhar said the CDs will show expletives hurled by Revenue and Public Relations Minister Bikramjit Singh Majithia and defence put up by his brother-in-law and Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Badal during the subsequent press briefing by asking a journalist to spell out the swear word.

"Since there was live coverage of the Assembly proceedings, the expletives are already in public domain. The Speaker suspended our MLA, Rana Gurjit Singh from the session without audio evidence of any abuse. But no action was taken against Majithia whose expletives were aired live, heard by all in the House, including the media and have now turned viral on YouTube. Now the Speaker has given orders to expunge them. If at all, he should gag anyone, it should be power-drunk Akali ministers and those they patronise. We will be dispatching the CDs to all district units...," Jakhar said.

It all started during a debate on law and order in the Assembly. The Congress on Wednesday had trooped to the well of the House demanding Majithia's resignation for heading "brigade of Akali goons" as he was putting up government's defence by citing crime statistics in Congress-ruled states. Majithia who was recounting crimes against women — Geetika suicide case in which former Haryana home minister Gopal Kanda has been arrested and the Delhi gang rape — took on individual Congress MLAs, alleging that Sukhdev Singh Namdhari, accused in Ponty and Hardeep Chadha shootout case, got his arms licence due to Congress MLA Rana Gurjit Singh who has 20 licences on his name. It was followed by heated exchange of words between the two.

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