117 MLAs. 4 debate Budget

<div class="section0"><div class="Normal"><span style="" font-size:="">CHANDIGARH: This is called economy of expression. It helps. But in times of inflationary rhetoric, an unusually low-key discussion on the annual budget in Punjab Vidhan Sabha on Wednesday was rather unnerving.</span><br /><br /><span style="" font-size:="">For once, in a normally garrulous House, silence was golden.While 96 members had marked their presence during the question hour, just four of them, two each from the Congress and the SAD, participated in the budget discussion.</span><br /><br /><span style="" font-size:="">Faced with this overwhelming indifference, deputy speaker Bir Devinder Singh had to literally beseech the members to add their precious bit to the debate, but when no one had anything to say, a distraught deputy speaker had to adjourn the house one-and-a-half hours before schedule.</span><br /><br /><span style="" font-size:="">In all, 26 members were present in the House during the discussion (Congress: 9; SAD: 16; and a lone Independent). Even finance minister Lal Singh was absent for about 15 minutes, leaving the treasury benches without any minister.</span><br /><br /><span style="" font-size:="">‘‘In normal course, members should have been pouncing on my throat to corner me on such a vital subject. But it turned out to be a hopeless situation’’ said the deputy speaker, for whom the day was riddled with ironies. He had names of just three SAD members when the discussion kicked off.</span><br /><br /><span style="" font-size:="">There was no name from the Congress or any other party.When he sent ‘‘slips’’ to Lal Singh to submit the names of participants from the Congress, the minister gave just one name: Malkiat Singh Dakha. </span><br /><br /><span style="" font-size:="">As senior SAD member Kanwaljit Singh initiated the discussion, the SAD submitted the names of Mantar Singh Brar and Capt Balbir Singh Bath. But, in the end, only Brar spoke while Bath’s name was withdrawn by the party.</span><br /><br /><span style="" font-size:="">When the Congress later offered Ashok Kumar’s name, the deputy speaker sent a note to Congress chief whip Rana Gurmit Sodhi, but he was absent from the House.</span></div> </div>