SRINAGAR:Six months after forging an alliance to form a coalition government in the state, the PDP-BJP Government faces a litmus test as the crucial seven-day autumn session of the J&K Assembly begins on Saturday.
The session, the first in Srinagar after the government took charge in March, is expected to kick up a storm as Opposition members have moved separate Bills to scrap the existing beef ban law in J&K. The Bills moved by the NC, Independent legislator Er Rashid and CPM state secretary Mohammad Yousuf Tarigami demanding the scrapping of Section 298-A and 298-B of the Ranbir Penal Code, which criminalise the sale and consumption of beef in the state, will be discussed in Assembly.
The session is bound to reveal fissures within the alliance as both parties have diametrically opposite views on the ban.
The PDP wants to maintain status quo, allowing the sale and slaughter of cows in the state, while the saffron party favours strict implementation of the J&K High Court Jammu wing’s September 8 order banning the sale of beef in the state.
Sources said the PDP is not happy with the BJP over the row on the beef ban issue. “The party feels there was no need for BJP leader and former Deputy Advocate General (DAG) Parimoksh Seth to proceed with his PIL seeking the implementation of the beef ban law as the law already existed and was being implemented as per the need of the situation,” they said.
Seth had filed the petition in the High Court’s Jammu wing in 2014 and was appointed DAG in June this year by the J&K government. State Law Minister and PDP leader Basharat Bukhari has removed Seth and Additional Advocate General Vishal Sharma, who is the J&K VHP president’s son, from their posts for failing to defend the state in the beef ban case in the High Court.