Chandigarh (National Times): The Punjab Vidhan Sabha on Friday witnessed heated exchanges between senior leaders as the House debated a resolution against the deployment of Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) at the Bhakra Beas Management Board (BBMB). The verbal showdown intensified when Leader of Opposition Partap Singh Bajwa described the Assembly as a “stage of drama,” prompting sharp criticism from Cabinet Minister Aman Arora.
Bajwa’s comment — “They (AAP leaders) have made this Assembly a stage of drama” — did not go down well with Arora, who immediately demanded Speaker Kultar Singh Sandhwan to issue a privilege motion against the Congress leader.
“This is absolutely ridiculous,” Aman Arora responded in the House. “Are all the MLAs here just artists or are they elected representatives of the people? I respect every MLA in this Assembly because they’ve been chosen by the public, but Bajwa has belittled this institution by calling it a stage.”
The confrontation didn’t end there. Responding to Bajwa’s query on why the Punjab government was opposing CISF deployment at BBMB while it remained deployed outside the Punjab Secretariat, Arora clarified, “The Secretariat is in Chandigarh, which is a Union Territory and under the jurisdiction of the Central Government. That’s the difference.”
Arora went further, turning his ire back to Bajwa over the recent FIR filed against him and Finance Minister Harpal Singh Cheema in Chandigarh. Accusing the Congress leader of colluding with the BJP, Arora said, “Bajwa and ‘Bhajpa’ (BJP) even sound the same — and they live in the same building, just on different floors.”
He continued, “The FIR filed in Chandigarh was no coincidence. Earlier, people used to say that it’s difficult to get a cyber crime FIR registered. So what was so special about this one? It clearly shows Bajwa’s links with the BJP. File as many FIRs as you want, we’re not afraid.”
The fiery remarks added another layer of intensity to the already tense session, which was originally extended to address key state issues but has since seen repeated clashes between the ruling AAP and the opposition Congress.
With the political drama unfolding both inside and outside the Assembly, the debate around central security presence in Punjab’s administrative and strategic sites continues to draw sharp fault lines between state and central authority — and between the state’s top political players.
