File photo: Leader of the Opposition in Punjab Vidhan Sabha, Sunil Kumar Jakhar.
Chandigarh, March 13, 2013: Punjab Vidhan Sabha Speaker Charanjit Singh Atwal issued a statement this evening in connection with what happened inside Punjab Vidhan Sabha today.
The statement reads; “Today, at around 9.30 AM, when I was going to my office, I received the information from the Secretary, Punjab Vidhan Sabha, that Leader of the Opposition, Sh. Sunil Kumar Jakhar has brought some unidentified and unauthorized persons without valid entry passes to Punjab Vidhan Sabha premises with unknown motives. As this involved a security breach of the most sensitive nature in the highest forum of democracy, I immediately instructed the Secretary, Punjab Vidhan Sabha to take prompt and appropriate effective action to cleanse the premises of any unidentified and unauthorized persons.
In the meantime, the session of the House began. During Question Hour, the Leader of the Opposition, Shri Sunil Kumar Jakhar got up in rage, and raised the issue of some Punjab police personnel allegedly stopping the entry of some persons into the House. Even before I could react, they started disrupting the proceedings of the House by raising slogans and charging into the well of the House. Thereafter, they staged a walk out.
Shri Madan Mohan Mittal, Hon'ble Parliamentary Affairs Minister then got up to move a resolution about the security breach and a breach of privilege of the House, asking for its condemnation. He brought to the attention of the House a similar incident that had taken place in the Indian Parliament at New Delhi when the security of the entire national leadership and political class came within a shadow of irretrievable damage.
The resolution moved by Shri Madan Mohan Mittal, Minister for Parliamentary Affairs, was being seconded by Hon'ble Minister, Sardar Bikram Singh Majithia, when the Opposition Members led by the Leader of the Opposition, Shri Sunil Kumar Jakhar re-entered the House and began disrupting the proceedings again. At this point, considering the gravity of the whole situation, I left the Chair for the Chairman to conduct the remaining part of the proceedings. When I was in my chamber, I received information that violence have taken place in a portion of the premises of the Vidhan Sabha, and some officials of the Watch and Ward staff had been criminally assaulted. This further raised the gravity of the whole incident. Then I got the House adjourned to first study the security scenario.
Enquiries made by me revealed that members of the Watch and Ward Staff have been criminally assaulted and badly mauled by some Hon'ble Members of the Opposition, for which Shri Jai Pal, a member of Watch & Ward Staff of Vidhan Sabha has made a separate complaint to the Secretary, Vidhan Sabha for appropriate action.
As Speaker and custodian of the House, it is my constitutional and lawful duty to maintain the decorum, dignity and privilege, and security of the House and the complex. All of these have been brutally violated. This has never happened in the history of the House. What makes the incident even more shocking is that a person holding the highly responsible office of the Leader of the Opposition, was directly responsible for this breach of privilege and security. The identity of the illegal entrants was unknown and, therefore, a potential threat to the highest forum of democracy in the State.”