AAP boycott, Congress walkout eclipse Chandigarh MC meet to celebrate moon landing

The AAP councillors had decided to boycott the meeting, citing the MC’s “ignorance” towards crucial issues of Chandigarh

The special house meeting of the Chandigarh municipal corporation (MC), called by mayor Anup Gupta on Tuesday to thank Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) chief S Somanath and Prime Minister (PM) Narendra Modi for the successful landing of Chandrayaan-3, proved to be a damp squib with the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) boycotting it and the Congress councillors staging a walkout.

Congress and BJP councillors caught in a heated argument in the well of the House during a special meeting of Chandigarh MC convened on Tuesday. (Keshav Singh/HT)

While the AAP councillors had decided to boycott the meeting, citing the MC’s “ignorance” towards crucial issues of the city, Congress councillors walked out as the names of former Congress prime ministers were missing in the MC’s resolution on celebrating the historic success of the Chandrayaan-3 Mission.

Gurpreet Singh Gabi, a Congress councillor, said in the House that if the mayor and BJP councillors wanted to pass a resolution on celebrating the historic success of the Chandrayaan-3 Mission, the names of Congress leaders—including Jawaharlal Nehru, Indira Gandhi, Manmohan Singh—and Vikram Sarabhai and APJ Abdul Kalam should also have been included, for their contributions in ISRO and science. “Why thank only PM Modi for all the success when the credit should go to all the leaders,” Gabi said.

Gabi raised the issue of including Indira Gandhi’s name, which the Bharatiya Janata Party leaders opposed, leading to an argument, following which all Congress councillors walked out.

“We welcomed the mayor’s decision on thanking the scientists for creating history and bringing laurels to the country but the BJP-run civic body could have done the same during the General House meeting on August 29 as the Chandrayaan-3 landing was made on August 24. This would have helped save on unnecessary expenditure of calling a special meeting,” said Gabi.

He added, “The mayor should have called the meeting to discuss the city’s key issues, including corruption-related matters, lack of funds and ban on new tenders for development work.”

On August 30, Mitra had ordered a ban on new tenders of developmental projects, till at least December, after an amount of ₹282 crore was ring-fenced for waste management of the city on the orders of National Green Tribunal. The mayor then met Punjab governor and UT administrator Banwarilal Purohit to seek more funds on August 31.

AAP councillor and leader of Opposition Damanpreet Singh said, “Only ISRO scientists are worthy of this praise. We boycotted the meeting as the mayor and MC officials are ignoring crucial issues. Despite banning developmental projects in the city in wake of fund crunch, MC organised a special house after spending lakhs of rupees for just showering praises to BJP. This is a waste of taxpayers’ money.”

Meanwhile, all ruling BJP councillors stood up one by one, hailing the PM leadership and the ISRO. While passing the resolution, mayor Anup Gupta said, “MC congratulates PM Modi, ISRO scientists and every individual associated with the project, including Nikhil Anand from Chandigarh, who has contributed to this landmark mission. We are proud of the fact that Anand studied from Government Model Schools in Sector 35 and Sector 40 which tells the story of global standards of education in our city. We will meet Anand’s family to congratulate them and also meet engineers from PEC to encourage them for future endeavors.”