Punjab: Congress worries about the House being “undermined” before the session
Punjab: In a letter to Speaker Kultar Singh Sandhwan one day prior to the Assembly session, Punjab’s Leader of the Opposition, Partap Singh Bajwa, expressed concern about what he called the “systematic undermining” of the House by replacing regular legislative sessions with carefully chosen special ones.
In his letter, Bajwa said that despite his repeated warnings about the concerning decrease in the frequency of House sessions, they had been ignored.
He warned that what was happening was a grave constitutional distortion that goes right to the heart of parliamentary democracy rather than a little procedural error.
In opposition to the new rural employment legislation, VB-G RAM G (Viksit Bharat-Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission Gramin), which replaces the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, the Aam Aadmi Party administration called a special one-day session of the Vidhan Sabha on December 30.
Bajwa emphasized that the Vidhan Sabha’s purpose is to discuss, examine, scrutinize, and hold the executive branch responsible. He said that the legislature was being eroded by the purposeful substitution of special sessions for the usual fall and winter sessions.
“The House is increasingly being reduced to a stage-managed spectacle rather than a true forum of democratic accountability, legislative time is decreasing, and scrutiny is being avoided,” he warned.
The Congress MP expressed concern that this deterioration was being carried out by a government whose leadership, notably the AAP leadership, had long claimed the moral high ground on institutional integrity, separation of powers, and constitutional norms.
He said, “Those who once lectured the country on constitutional morality are now in charge of a model that weakens the legislature and concentrates power in the executive.”
Bajwa recalled that the Rules of Procedure and Conduct of Business, which require a minimum of 40 sittings each year, were formerly vehemently demanded by the same forces now in power. He said that the idea had been discreetly abandoned.
He cautioned that the Assembly has become a controlled message platform that is more motivated by optics than responsibility due to the increasing dependence on special sessions, which often lack significant Question Hour, Zero Hour, and substantial discussion.
Bajwa said the House should be in a continuous and serious session, not reduced to political theater, at a time when Punjab is facing significant issues, such as declining law and order, the drug problem, public health concern, groundwater pollution, and growing debt.