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| - Fact Check: Congress MLA Gurjeet Singh wasn't absent from Punjab Assembly during Chandigarh resolution
A postcard has gone viral on social media, claiming that Congress MLA Gurjeet Singh did not vote in favour of Punjab during the resolution. India Today's Anti Fake News War Room (AFWA) found the claim to be misleading.
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India Today Fact Check
Congress MLA Rana Gurjeet Singh was present at the assembly during the voice vote to pass the resolution. However, Raja Warring and SAD MLA Ganieve Kaur Majithia remained absent during the session.
On March 27, Union Home Minister Amit Shah made a significant announcement after landing in Chandigarh. He assured government employees in the Union Territory that they would get the same benefits offered under the central service rule.
After this, the Aam Aadmi Party government of Punjab passed a resolution in the Assembly on April 1. The resolution sought the transfer of the Union Territory of Chandigarh to Punjab. Members of the Opposition, including Congress, Shiromani Akali Dal, and Bahujan Samaj Party, supported the resolution.
Meanwhile, a postcard has gone viral on social media claiming that two Congress legislators—Rana Gurjeet Singh and Raja Warring—and SAD MLA Ganieve Kaur Majithia did not vote in Punjab’s favour during the resolution.
The viral post in Punjabi carried the images of the three MLAs along with Punjabi text that roughly translates to, "Those who did not vote for Chandigarh, in favour of Punjab." A caption has also been added with a sarcastic tone that reads, "And then they say we are the guardians of Punjab."
Archived versions of similar claims can be seen here and here.
India Today's Anti Fake News War Room (AFWA) has found this claim to be misleading. Congress MLA Rana Gurjeet Singh was present in the assembly when the resolution was passed. However, the other two MLAs were indeed absent from the assembly on the said day.
AFWA Probe
With the help of a few keyword searches, we first tried to trace the names of the MLAs who remained absent when the resolution was passed. It led us to an article by The Indian Express on April 2, 2022.
The report mentioned that the ruling Aam Aadmi Party had slammed Congress MLAs Sukhpal Singh Khaira and Amarinder Singh Raja Warring for not being present when the resolution was passed. This confirmed that Warring was absent from Assembly during the special session. However, if Gurjeet Singh had missed the session, his name would also have been featured in this story. This prompted us to investigate further.
We found that The Tribune was live reporting the developments at the assembly session on April 1. It noted that Akali Dal MLA Ganieve Kaur Majithia remained absent during the session. She is the only MLA who has not taken her oath yet.
But, we didn’t come across anything which mentioned Congress MLA Gurjeet Singh's absence. So, we checked his social media handles for clues.
We found an Instagram post by Singh on April 1. He posted this picture of himself with some of his colleagues alongside a caption that reads, "All set to attend the special session of Punjab Vidhan Sabha." In this picture, Gurjeet is seen in a green turban.
Then we ran some more keywords to find the videos of the assembly session. We found a 2 hour 45 minute-long YouTube clip of the session in which the resolution to seek Chandigarh’s authority was passed.
In the video, just after the voice vote for the resolution, a frame appeared at the 2 hours, 44 minutes, and 48 second mark. In that frame, a member was spotted in a similar outfit as Gurjeet Singh on the Congress pavilion—opposite the AAP members’ bench. After zooming into the screenshot of the frame, we understood it could be Gurjeet himself.
On further searching, we found another YouTube video of Rana Gurjeet Singh talking to journalists outside the assembly about the resolution. He extended the Congress party’s support to AAP for the resolution.
As suspected, the attire of the Congressman was the same as the person from the longer video checked earlier.
We tried reaching out to Singh for further details. However, he didn’t respond to multiple attempts. We called another Congress MLA from Fatehgarh, Churian, and former minister, Tripat Rajinder Singh Bajwa, for some confirmation.
He said that the resolution was passed unanimously. Bajwa confirmed that "Congress supported the resolution and Rana Gurjeet was there till the very last minute. Sukhpal Khaira had to leave as he had to attend the ED case date."
We have also left a text to Gurjeet seeking his version of this. This article will be updated when we receive a reply.
Hence, it can be said that the viral post on the absence of Congress MLA Gurjeet Singh from the Punjab Assembly during the special one-day session to pass the Chandigarh resolution is misleading.
(With inputs from Yash Mittal, New Delhi)
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