Serious questions of impropriety, legislature Vs court are involved
And will we even begin discussing the entire gamut of Mega Development?
Sach Kanwal Singh
CHANDIGARH: Political discourse has hit the rock bottom in Punjab as the ruling Akali Dal and the opposition Congress are trading cheap tactics and gutter diction at a time when both face a situation where the functioning of Parliamentary democracy lies severly questioned and the legislature is struggling to underline its jurisdictional area in the High Court। After a committee of the Punjab Vidhan Sabha found former Chief Minister Amarinder Singh guilty of favouring a private land coloniser by exempting his 32 acres of land from a larger scheme of government-run urban development agency 
PUDA, he has knocked at the doors of the High Court to challenge the jurisdiction of the Assembly panel to expel him. He, in fact, challenged the very setting up of a panel to probe any wrongdoing that happened during the tenure of the previous Vidhan Sabha. Obviously, serious questions are involved. Foremost, virtually no one is challenging that records of the Vidhan Sabha were tampered with to escape the need for an inquiry. Secondly, someone did benefit the private coloniser thus helping him make crores while causing loss to PUDA. Thirdly, the three Congress MLAs of the probe panel set up by the Assembly participated in all the proceedings, and only at a later fag-end stage, protested against expelling Amarinder। And then, there is the proverbial other side of the story। It is not clear how the Assembly reached the quantification of the punitive action against Amarinder? Also, how did the Assembly panel try to push for custodial interrogation, a component of its decision that has been stayed by the High Court? Matters of norms in Parliamentary democracy have become entangled with competitive and bitterly partisan Punjab politics। Some role of Amarinder's own detractors within the party is also involved। Voices defending Amarinder are countable on the fingers of one hand. Sukhpal Singh Khaira, Jeet Mohinder Singh Sidhu… that’s about all. Ditto for CM Parkash Singh Badal who is hardly getting any support from fellow Akalis. Ghost-written press releases in the name of Capt Kanwaljit Singh and Prem Singh Chandumajra are fired every evening with ample references to Amarinder Singh's personal life, his friend Aroosa Alam, and sundry such things. Who needs to refer to Aroosa Alam to defend Punjab Assembly’s decision? May be Akalis do! After Amarinder Singh informed the High Court and went abroad in connection with his upcoming book, Akalis started making noises about an absconding Amarinder. He, too, responded by saying he will come back and “Kalle Kalle nu dekh lavanga” (I will deal with every single one of you morons). One wonders if such is are the Parliamentary norms that Punjab deserves. No one gains from such poor debates than the politicians. Just imagine what could we have been discussing if Amarinder-Badal duo had not dragged us into this wormpit of politics: Both main parties are pursuing the same pro-coloniser big-money real estate development agenda of Malls, estates, multiplexes, world-class public schools, super highways, metro plans for bigger cities. There is a strange uniformity in vision of development. It has been months since we heard of agriculture crisis, condition of government schools in villages, the menace of cubby-hole private schools in 
Punjab's countryside, the debate on teaching English from Class I, the condition of our dispensaries, the availability of veterinarians in rural areas, not even the problem of stray dogs who are killing young children with a regularity so disturbing that a single image in the media will shock you out of your senses. And the media in Punjab has not even started discussing the possible fallouts of the Assembly action. Theoretically, now a majority in the Assembly can go through the steps of an inquiry, find a problematic MLA guilty and expel him for the entire term of the House. If the Punjab Assembly’s decision passes muster the High Court and later the Supreme Court, we are possibly looking at a dangerous trend in parliamentary democracy. But are the politicians and the media even warning us about the inherent conflict of interest and jurisdiction between legislature and courts that the Punjab Assembly decision involves? And if the Assembly action fails in High Court, would that mean that no wrong doing happened? Complex questions need our engaged participation, these are too important to be left to politicians and the media. Your call!
Dear Blue Pencil !
With the media blissfully ensconced in its ivory tower, it was left to the Akali Dal’s spinmasters to tell the story of the Vidhan Sabha probe panel’s work and findings। Days after the report was circulated to the media men by the Speaker of the Vidhan Sabha and available for the asking from Badal’s penpushers like Harcharan Bains, no reporter considered it worth his while to browse through the documents। Finally, Akali Dal paid for some front page advertisements disguised as news stories to tell how Ratna, the then Congress Chairperson of the Amritsar Improvement Trust had brought out the story of pressures, threats and bribes on offer and how she was removed because she was probably not doing anything wrong। Editors in newspapers like the Hindustan Times, Ajit, and some others shamelessly put out the advertisements, and thought the fine print of one word “ADVT” and a box around the disguised news item will keep their conscience clear। But did any editor ask his reporter why he did not do a story? Please don’t ever bet money on blue pencils, not in Punjab।
Source : http://www.worldsikhnews.com/
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