SRINAGAR: A day after Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti’s hard posturing on Article 370 and terming those opposing the law granting special to the State as “anti-nationals”, J&K’s Legislative Assembly on Tuesday witnessed pandemonium, uproar, protests and adjournments.
The opposition members protested after Speaker directed expunging of CM’s remarks. However, he later clarified that he will go through the record of the House and expunge remarks if an anti-national word is used.
During the Zero Hour today in Assembly, which is in session in Jammu, ruling BJP MLA Rajiv Jasrotia took exception to Mehbooba’s remarks in Assembly yesterday in which she had called those opposing Article 370 as “anti-national”.
While speaking on Home department grants in Assembly, Mehbooba had yesterday said those trying to abrogate Article 370 are the biggest “anti-nationals” and they should be opposed.
“Those who are doing it are harming India and its interests. Article 370 has persuaded the people to reject the monolithic concept of living and adopt a pluralistic way in tune with the traditions and ethos of the place,” she had said adding, “Disturbing Article 370 would be against country’s interests”.
The BJP MLA Jasrotia urged Speaker Kavinder Gupta to expung CM’s remarks from records of the house saying “every political party in the state has its own ideology”.
“The NC has agenda of “autonomy”, PDP “self rule” and BJP’s core issue is abrogating Article 370,” he said adding, “I too am against Article 370 and so was Shyama Prasad Mukherjee, Atal Behari Vajpayee, Deen Dayal Upadhya and the BJP. CM has branded all of us as anti-nationals for being nationalists to the core”.
Speaker Kavinder Gupta, who is a BJP MLA, on the request of Jasrotia directed expunging of Mehbooba’s remarks.
It created uproar in the house with opposition National Conference, Congress and Kashmir-based legislators and PDP MLA and former minister Javed Mustafa Mir agitating over it.
"How can you expunge remarks of CM, who is leader of the house. You are making a mockery of this House,” the opposition members said.
They said it was for the first time in parliamentary history that Speaker has expunged CM’s remarks.
“It means that BJP does not have confidence in CM’s leadership,” they said and resorted to anti-government, anti-PDP, anti-BJP and anti-RSS sloganeering.
The Speaker adjourned the house for half an hour minutes.
When the house met again, Speaker told the members that he has not expunged the remarks. “I will first go through the record of the House and if an anti-national word is used, it will be expunged,” he said.
It led to chaos with NC, Congress and Valley-based members storming into the well of the House.
“The CM should either clear her stand or resign as Speaker has expunged her remarks,” the opposition members said.
As the pandemonium continued, the Speaker again adjourned the house for 15 minutes.
However, when the uproar continued after the house met again, Speaker adjourned the house for the day.
After the adjournment of the Assembly, the opposition members staged a sit-in outside the Chief Minister’s Secretariat in Jammu amidst chanting of slogans like “RSS sarkar hai hai”, “BJP sarkar hai hai”, “Bajrangi sarkar hai hai”, “Qatil Sarkar hai hai” and “Curfew Sarkar hai hai”.
The legislators demanded that CM Mehbooba should make a statement on the issue. “Either she should make a statement or quit”.
The MLAs staged a march in the Secretariat premises and chanted “Jo Article 370 se takrayega, khoon ki nadiyaan bahengi”.
They alleged that both the ruling partners PDP and BJP are against the Article 370.
Congress legislative party leader Nawang Rigzin Jora termed expunging of CM’s remarks as sad and unfortunate. “Such an incident has never happened anywhere. Now there are only two ways – either the CM should take back her statement or resign.”
Meanwhile, BJP’s chief spokesman Sunil Sethi said abrogation of Article 370 and its aftermath including Article 35 A are core agenda of BJP and the party has never left and abandoned its core agenda.
“Only for the purposes of running coalition government in the state, the party has decided not to press for Abrogation of Article 370 while in government but in no way left the agenda,” he said.
He said Article 370, in fact, has created a situation, which has lead to breeding grounds for separatism and militancy in the state and its effects have been used by vested elements to talk about non-existing sub-nationalism which is core reasons for all problems of the state.
Sethi called on leaders of other parties to do introspection on pros and cons of Article 370. “It will surely lead all to conclude that the biggest enemy of J&K people and their integrated growth with the nation is Article 370 and its aftermath”.
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