Justice Ranjit Singh Commission report to be tabled on Monday

The Justice Ranjit Singh Commission report will officially be tabled in Punjab Vidhan Sabha on Monday, as per the decision taken in the business advisory committee meeting held on Friday after the House adjourned on the first day of its monsoon session.

Though already leaked, the report will be tabled in the House as per announced by the Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh, along with the action taken report by the government regarding the recommendations of the Commission.

The last day of the session, that is Tuesday, has been assigned for holding a debate on the report for which all parties are already preparing.

Before the start of the session, Aam Aadmi Party ‘rebel’ MLAs, led by Sukhpal Singh Khaira, held a protest outside the assembly demanding to table the report on Friday only.

“We want that Justice Ranjit Singh Commission report be tabled in the House on today only so that all the members can read it for Monday session,” said Khaira while also demanding the extension of the session.

SAD has already rejected the report accusing the ruling Congress of defaming the Akalis by blaming them for the sacrilege incidents. On the other hand, Congress is gearing up to target the SAD, especially the former Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal, for its failure to handle the situation arising out of sacrilege incidents occurring across the state.

Only recently, one of the witness Himmat Singh — a former granthi at the Golden Temple and brother of former Takht Damdama Sahib Jathedar Gurmukh Singh — retracted from his statement given to the Commission against the then ruling Badal family, alleging that he was pressurized by Randhawa to sign the statement already prepared by Justice (retired) Ranjit Singh.

Dubbing the Justice Ranjit Singh panel as “sarkari”, the SAD had already sought registration of cases against Justice (retired) Ranjit Singh and Cabinet Minister Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa.

The Commission of Inquiry was set up by the Congress government in April 2017 to investigate various incidents of sacrilege of religious texts. It dealt with incidents at village Burj Jawahar Singh Wala, Bargari and firing incidents at Kotkapura and Behbal Kalan in 2015.

The first day of the three-day session was adjourned after paying tributes to the eminent personalities that passed away in the intervening period between the two sessions. The session will now resume on Monday for the afternoon sitting, followed by a morning sitting on Tuesday before adjourning sine dine.

Opposition parties — both AAP and the SAD-BJP combine — have all along been raising the demand for extending the session at least for 10 days so that many other burning issues concerning Punjab could be discussed.

However, the demand to extend the session failed to find any favour during the meeting of Business Advisory Committee which has the representatives of all parties. Apart from the Speaker Rana Kanwar Pal Singh, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Brahm Mohindra, Congress MLA Sadhu Singh Dharamsot, SAD MLA Sharanjit Singh Dhillon, and the Leader of Opposition Harpal Singh Cheema attended the meeting.

Even as the SAD leader and the former minister Sharanjit Singh Dhillon claimed that his demand to extend the session was ignored during the meeting, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Brahm Mohindra said that no demand was made by the opposition to extend sittings of the House.