Top News

Chandigarh, Aug 6 (PTI) The Punjab Assembly on Thursday witnessed noisy scenes following a BJP MLA's "girl child" remark in the House, with the ruling AAP slamming Ashwani Sharma and asking him to seek forgiveness from women in the state.

Sharma later expressed regrets over his remark.

Uproar erupted in the House during Zero Hour following the remark by BJP MLA Sharma, who criticised the AAP government for blaming the Centre for every issue.

Earlier, cabinet minister Barinder Kumar Goyal blamed the Centre for not supporting Punjab in earning revenue from sand mining in the state.

Rejecting the opposition parties' claim of illegal sand mining, Goyal said Punjab would have earned more than Rs 20,000 crore from the mining had the Centre supported it.

Reacting to Goyal's statement, Sharma countered the minister's charge by saying it blames the Centre for everything.

"Your situation is such that if a girl child is born, then the Centre is at fault and if a boy takes birth then it is (your) hard work," said Sharma.

"You turned it into a platform for making political statements. You blame the Centre for every issue," the BJP MLA added.

The Pathankot MLA's remark drew sharp reactions from the treasury benches, with cabinet minister Aman Arora calling it a "discriminatory mindset".

"Do you differentiate between a boy and a girl? It is a discriminatory mindset," he said.

"Such a mindset cannot be tolerated," said Arora, asking Sharma to seek an apology from daughters and women in the state.

Further slamming Sharma, Arora said girls are excelling in every field and bringing laurels.

Facing criticism from the treasury benches, Sharma said it is just a phrase.

He asked the Assembly speaker to expunge his remark from the Assembly records if it was unparliamentary.

Later, speaking to reporters, Sharma said he was referring to the Aam Aadmi Party's mindset, which blames the Centre for everything.

He, however, expressed regret over his remark if it hurt anybody's sentiments. 

(This report has been published as part of the auto-generated syndicate wire feed. Apart from the headline, no editing has been done in the copy by ABP Live.)