Bir Devinder calls Bittu-Harsimrat’s Parliament spat ‘foolish, childish’

Former Deputy Speaker of Punjab Vidhan Sabha and senior leader of SAD (Samyukt), Bir Devinder Singh, on Thursday termed the spat between Harsimrat Kaur Badal and Ravneet Singh Bittu inside the Parliament complex over farm laws “excessively foolish and childish”.

Congress MP Ravneet Singh Bittu and Shiromani Akali Dal MP Harsimrat Kaur Badal engaged in an intense verbal spat on Wednesday over the three farm laws passed by Parliament last year. Bittu accused Badal of doing ‘drama’ and said that she didn’t oppose the farm laws when she was a minister in the Modi government. Responding to the allegations, Harsimrat Badal slammed Bittu asking where was he and Congress leader Rahul Gandhi when the government passed the bills.

In a statement issued here on Thursday, Bir Devinder, said whatever may be the logic behind Wednesday’s arguments, the fact remained that both Bittu and Badal had lowered the prestige of the position they held as elected Members of Parliament.

“The pointed questions raised by Ravneet Singh Bittu against Harsimrat Kaur Badal were quite relevant and factually correct,” he said.

He added that the position of Harsimrat Badal in the entire scenario was indefensible and her arguments untenable. “Badal is on shaky grounds on two counts. One, she was present in the meeting of the Cabinet held on June 3 last year where the anti-farmers ordinances were approved and later promulgated as such by the President of India on June 5, 2020. Secondly, she was a party to have approved the draft of all the three anti-farmer agricultural bills in the Cabinet in September last year, before these were tabled in the Parliament,” he said.

Bir Devinder said that as a matter of procedure of tabling the Bills in either house of Parliament, there is a mandatory provision that final draft of the proposed law (that is a bill) is to be presented for approval by the council of ministers, under the chairmanship of the Prime Minister. Only then can it be tabled before the Parliament.

“It is pertinent to mention that here again Harsimrat Badal was present in the meeting of the council of the ministers as a Cabinet Minister and approved the proposed anti-farmer bills, which eventually became a law after being passed by both the Houses of Parliament and being given assent by the President on September 24, 2020,” he said.

He, however, added that public spat between the MPs in the Parliament Complex in full view of the electronic media, in violation of all norms of fundamental decency and parliamentary decorum, was “offensively inappropriate” which certainly quantifies to be “condemned contemptuously” by all.