New Delhi, March 25 The BJP-dominated Delhi Assembly passed a censure motion against the ruling Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) in Punjab on Wednesday, alleging that its leaders were involved in "atrocities" against officials and others.
No immediate reaction was available from the Aam Aadmi Party, whose MLAs boycotted House proceedings to protest against the suspension of their four colleagues.
The issue was raised by Delhi Environment Minister Manjinder Singh Sirsa, who referred to the reported suicide of Gagandeep Singh Randhawa, general manager of the Punjab State Warehousing Corporation, last week.
Sirsa alleged that AAP minister Laljit Singh Bhullar exerted "undue pressure" on the officer to award tenders to certain individuals. Bhullar resigned after the issue snowballed into a major controversy and was arrested on Monday on charges of abetting suicide and other offenses.
Sirsa cited various other incidents reported from Punjab, alleging that several persons ended their lives after they faced "atrocities" from AAP MP and MLAs.
"The Aam Aadmi Party's pursuit of power, greed, and accumulation of wealth has reached such an extent that earlier people were being exploited and now lives are being lost," he charged.
He claimed that these incidents have collectively reflected an "atmosphere of fear" and injustice in Punjab.
The minister, as well as other BJP MLAs, including OP Sharma, Tarvinder Singh Marwah, and Harish Khurana, also raised the issue of raids against a media house in Punjab.
The BJP has 48 MLAs, while AAP has 22 in the 70-member Delhi Assembly.
The opposition AAP MLAs were not in the House when the motion was passed by voice vote as they have been boycotting proceedings to press for the revocation of the suspension of four party legislators.
MLAs Sanjeev Jha, Kuldeep Kumar, Jarnail Singh, and Som Dutt were suspended during the Winter session for disrupting proceedings.
Marwah said that in view of the prevailing situation in Punjab, the assembly elections next year should be conducted under the "supervision" of the Governor.
Speaker Vijender Gupta, putting the Censure motion to a vote, said that the issue of the Punjab official's suicide was also raised in the Lok Sabha.
"Corruption is the main reason behind such incidents and raids against a media house are strongly condemnable and an attack on democracy," he said.