Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal on Monday accused the Congress party of running away on a most frivolous excuse from full scale , free and fair debate on development, progress and governance in the state and “deliberately sabotaged” discussion on it when the House took up the no-confidence motion moved by the opposition. Mr. Badal said that he had been deeply saddened by the manner in which the opposition chose to disgrace democracy. “This was a very sad day. It seems that the opposition was either totally non-serious or utterly unprepared to face the government in an open and full fledged discussion on development.” said the Chief Minister. Mr Badal said that in a democracy the opposition parties desperately latch to any opportunity to discuss the government’s performance. This was the first instance in history of a government wanting a discussion and the opposition running away from it.,” said the CM.The Chief Minister that he watched the proceedings with complete surprise as he could not believe his eyes, watching the opposition throwing away an opportunity which it had demanded itself to confront the government on its performance. It seems that they had no confidence in facing the ruling alliance over the issue of phenomenal development and progress made in Punjab during the past ten years.
“Perhaps they had sought permission for a no confidence motion only as a publicity gimmick and did not seriously believe that the government would show such prompt readiness to accept the challenge. In the end, they were just inventing excuses to run away”.The Chief Minister declared that the ruling had alliance had so much to talk about on development and governance that we might even have needed more time than just one day to present our case. We were very pleased over this no confidence motion as it created an opportunity for us to talk about our performance at great length. But the Congress realized that this was so and therefore did not allow it to materialize, said the CM.He said that this was the first time in his long political career that he had seen an opposition party refusing to accept an opportunity to discuss its own motion because it knew that the ruling alliance would come out on top on the basis of concrete data and details on development in the state.Mr Badal said that the Congress used a flippant excuse of party badges to run away from discussion. “Is a party badge the most important issue of the people of Punjab? On the one hand , the Congress claimed that there were most serious issues to discuss in the House and brought a no-confidence motion to confront the government on the other, they showed no interest in discussing their own motion of no confidence against the government. We had immediately and most unhesitatingly expressed our willingness to face the no confidence motion. But It seems the Congress was surprised by our readiness and confidence to face them and were not prepared at all for a discussion over it. This shows the party’s non-seriousness toward the state and its people,” said the Chief Minister in a statement