Harsimrat targets Punjab’s CM during LS debate on drug menace
Shiromani Akali Dal lawmaker Harsimrat Kaur Badal on Tuesday targeted Punjab chief minister Bhagwant Mann during a debate in the Lok Sabha on the issue of drug abuse. Several words and lines from her speech were expunged by the Chair later.
Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) MP Harsimrat Kaur Badal speaks in Lok Sabha during the Winter Session of Parliament, in New Delhi on Tuesday. (ANI Photo/ SansadTV) (ANI)
Shiromani Akali Dal lawmaker Harsimrat Kaur Badal on Tuesday targeted Punjab chief minister Bhagwant Mann during a debate in the Lok Sabha on the issue of drug abuse. Several words and lines from her speech were expunged by the Chair later.
“Alcohol is nothing but an addiction. And I am trying to say how addiction is affecting people,” said former Union minister Badal, who initiated the debate on the problem of drug abuse and the steps taken by the government. “If the chief minister is like this then you can imagine what the condition of the state will be.”
She also claimed that the “lawmakers who used to sit next to Mann wanted to change their seats”. Mann was the only member of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) in the Lok Sabha, which currently has no representative from the AAP.
The MP from Bathinda also claimed that the Punjab chief minister had to be deboarded from a Lufthansa flight a few months ago. The German airline, however, had later said that its flight was delayed due to an “aircraft change”.
Stating that the law-and-order situation in Punjab was deteriorating, Badal claimed that “drugs had even entered schools”. “No one feels safe here. People are leaving the state (Punjab) and going abroad because of the drug menace,” she alleged.
AAP spokesperson in Punjab did not respond to multiple calls for a comment.