SRI NAGAR: As expected, the budget session of the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly had a stormy start on Monday in Jammu with Opposition members staging protests and resorting to sloganeering, prompting the Governor N N Vohra to cut short his address and leave the House even as the national anthem was playing.
National Conference and Congress legislators from Kashmir carrying placards with slogans such as “Revoke PSA”, “Order Judicial Probe Into Summer Unrest”, “Stop Killings”, “Stop Telling Lies”, protested as Vohra entered the Central Hall of the legislature in the morning. The Opposition members waved the placards and chanted anti-government slogans to protest against the killing of about 100 civilians during the over-five-months-long unrest in the Valley triggered by the killing of 21-year-old Hizbul Mujahideen commander Burhan Wani on July 8. Some Opposition members were also wearing black robes.
Chanting slogans against the use of pellet guns, the legislators said those involved in civilian killings during the unrest should be severely punished and demanded the release of arrested persons. They also demanded a ban on the use of pellet guns and PAVA shells.
They alleged that the PDP-BJP government was dealing with people with goli (bullets) instead of boli (dialogue). The PDP is implementing the RSS strategy in the border state, they further charged. Independent MLA Er Sheikh Abdur Rashid waved a banner in the Assembly demanding a plebiscite in Jammu & Kashmir and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir.
Amid the pandemonium, the governor continued his address. The Opposition members threw their placards towards the well of the House. But when the noise increased, Vohra cut short his speech and left the central hall.
The Assembly members later met for obituary references. The members observed silence to pay homage to the deceased legislators, civilians killed in the unrest and soldiers killed in three militant attacks in the Valley last year.
Speaking during the obituary references, senior Congress leader Nawang Rigzin Jora described the unrest as a mass uprising, which evoked strong protests from the BJP and PDP members. “It was a mass uprising against the PDP-BJP unholy alliance...,’’ he said.