The Fact News Service
Chandigarh, December 15
Reacting to the ongoing tense situation between Governor Punjab Banwarilal Purohit and CM Bhagwant Mann, former Vidhan Sabha deputy speaker Bir Devinder Singh said that it might lead the State to be put under President’s rule.
He said, “Now when the political slugfest between the Governor of Punjab and the Chief Minister, stands indefensibly exposed, through the ham-fisted exchange of correspondence between the two, it obviously manifests the collapse of the relationship between the two topmost constitutional authorities of the State.”
Sharing his views, Bir Devinder said, “As an independent observer of the affairs of the State for more than four decades, I am unreservedly inclined to blame both, the Governor and the Chief Minister, for not maintaining the dignified conviviality of an illustrious relationship. I would also beg to differ with the apparently perceived contention of the Governor, that Bhagwant Mann was incommunicado for the Governor of Punjab during his engagement in Gujarat, where he was canvassing for the candidates of the AAP.”
He added that it would have been more prudent if the Governor could have mentioned in his very recent perforated letter, how many time, attempts were made by the Raj Bhawan to contact the Chief Minister during his sojourn in Gujarat or whether the Chief Secretary of Punjab V.K Janjua was explicitly asked by the Governor to convey the message to Punjab Chief Minister to call Punjab Raj Bhawan immediately, because the Governor wishes to speak to him, urgently to discuss an important issue, entailing the hasty and untimely repatriation of an IPS officer of the Punjab cadre from UT Chandigarh for his alleged misconduct. If such genuine attempts were really made, then the Raj Bhawan must put the date-wise facts in black and white, on record for public consumption; otherwise, such perverse and arbitrary accusation should not become part of the classified high-profile correspondence of the Governor to CM, it rather becomes politically blended and intendedly motivated.
“On the other hand, I have a strong feeling that the working of the Chief Minister’s office (CMO) is severely botched up. If Chief Minister is repeatedly making unsubstantiated stupid statements in a clumsy manner to the media, without verifying the facts, then the CMO and his media advisory apparatus is to be squarely blamed, for the embarrassing absurdity, being committed with peculiar promptness,” said the former deputy speaker.
He said, “I’m afraid to believe that the State is heading for the President’s rule very soon, for which the covert exercise has already begun under the alibi of constitutional failure and total collapse of law-and-order machinery in the State, notwithstanding the absolute majority of the AAP in Punjab Vidhan Sabha.”
