The "blow hot blow cold" behaviour of Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Singh Mann towards Leader of the Opposition Partap Singh Bajwa had the House stunned on Friday.
During the debate on the resolution in favour of labourers, CM Bhagwant Singh Mann, in a rather unusual fit of rage, objected to the statement made by Bajwa regarding the eight special sessions convened by the AAP government in the past four years, saying they achieved little and members could not ask public-oriented questions.
Mann jumped from his seat to rebuke Bajwa, asking him if the last special Assembly session on April 13, where the Jaagat Jot Sri Guru Granth Sahib (Amendment) Bill, 2026, was passed wasn’t big enough. "Was it not enough? Or maybe because you (Congress) never wanted to bring an anti-sacrilege law and even raised suspicion over the enactment of this Bill, you felt the session did not achieve much," he said.
Later, when his tempers cooled down, Mann recommended to Speaker Kultar Singh Sandhwan that he increase the time allotted for debate to the Congress from eight minutes to 20 minutes. "Aaj Leader of House tuhade te meharbaan han," quipped the Speaker.
Mann earlier also objected to a reporter of the Vidhan Sabha from walking in front of the Speaker to reach her seat and demanded action against her, forcing Speaker Kultar Singh Sandhwan to ask her to follow protocol.
But pandemonium broke out in the House when Mann, immediately thereafter, pointed at Sukhpal Singh Khaira for fiddling with his phone rather than participating in the discussion on the contribution of labourers. He even objected to the way Khaira was sitting in the House, saying it was unbecoming of a member of the House.
Khaira said that he was being unnecessarily targeted by the treasury benches. "I was only reading the bill on the phone," he said, as members of treasury benches shut him down.
Later, when Mann got up to leave the House for some time, Khaira got up from his seat and commented on the behaviour of Mann. Listening to Khaira pointing fingers at him, Mann stopped midway, walked back to his seat and indulged in a heated debate with Khaira. Leader of Opposition Partap Singh Bajwa demanded that an alcohometer test be conducted on all members of the House. This led to angry scenes in the Vidhan Sabha and an open argument.
Congress MLAs walked into the well of the House and continued to lodge their protest even as Mann went out of the House. Later, Congress MLAs staged a walkout. No BJP or SAD MLA was present in the House.