Senior Congress leader and the Leader of Opposition in Vidhan Sabha Partap Singh Bajwa on Thursday criticized the Bhagwant Mann Government’s behaviour for being “completely undemocratic” in the House.

“The prime duty and responsibility of the opposition party is to seek answers from various Cabinet ministers, including the Chief Minister, to the questions being raised by the people of Punjab on various issues of public interest…However, it has been observed that the Speaker does not allow legislators of the opposition party to put forward his or her views on the floor of the House in a free and fair manner,” he said.

“The legislators of the Congress party or even from other political parties are frequently interrupted and even heckled when they try to make a serious point in the larger interest of the public,” added Bajwa.

Bajwa said that it appeared as if the treasury benches, led by the Chief Minister, who also happened to be the Leader of the House by design wanted to muzzle the voice of the opposition by not giving its legislators enough time to raise issues. Besides, the treasury benches also took advantage of its massive strength by intimidatingly shouting down the opposition legislators, he added.

“The Speaker is required to play a neutral role in giving enough time to the opposition leaders so that they could raise the issues from their respective constituencies,” he said, adding that AAP Government try to put entire blame on the opposition only to wriggle out of its reign of misgovernance in Punjab even as the responsibility of functioning of the House smoothly solely lied with the party in power.