Senior Congress leader P Chidambaram on Tuesday questioned why the Bharatiya Janata Party MLAs were absent from the Punjab Assembly during...
Senior Congress leader P Chidambaram on Tuesday questioned why the Bharatiya Janata Party MLAs were absent from the Punjab Assembly during the passage of bills introduced by the state government to negate the central farm laws. Chidambaram called this a display of “political cowardice”.
Punjab on Tuesday became the first state in the country to formally reject the Centre’s contentious agriculture laws that were assented last month, with the state Assembly unanimously passing a resolution against them.
The House also passed three farm amendment bills of their own to counter the central laws, along with a fourth amendment for exempting farmers from attachment of land up to 2.5 acres. All MLAs from the Shiromani Akali Dal and Aam Aadmi Party voted in favour of the resolution and the bills. However, the two BJP MLAs were absent from the House during the special session of the legislative Assembly.
“Why did the BJP MLAs stay away from the Punjab Assembly when the House was considering the Bills introduced by the state government?” Chidambaram asked in a tweet. The former finance minister said that if the absentee legislators supported the central farm laws, they should have participated in the House proceedings and opposed the state government’s bills.
“What the Punjab BJP MLAs did...
