J&K Assembly adjourned sine die

Srinagar, Nov 8: The Speaker of the J&K Legislative Assembly Friday evening adjourned the House sine die.

The assembly session commenced on November 4 and culminated on Friday evening after the house passed the Motion of Thanks on Lieutenant Governor’s address amid the walkout staged by the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) legislators.

This was the first assembly session since 2019 after the Centre abrogated Article 370 and Article 35-A downgraded the J&K state to a union territory.

Earlier, as the house commenced, the Speaker announced the names of the members to speak and discuss on the Motion of Thanks for LG’s address in the house.

However, the opposition BJP members created a ruckus and interrupted the proceedings of the house.

When the members from the ruling party started the discussion, despite interruption from the opposition, the Speaker ordered that the protesting leaders should be marshaled out of the house.

After this, several BJP legislators were marshaled out by the assembly security as the members tried to storm into the well of the house.

“Whosoever tries to storm into the well, evict them,” the Speaker ordered.

As the house commenced, MLA Handwara Sajad Lone along with PDP legislators Waheed Parra, Fayaz Mir, and Rafiq Ahmad Naik, and MLA Langate Khurshid Ahmad Sheikh tried to display a poster and sought the attention of the Speaker.

However, they were confronted by the BJP legislators, which resulted in a scuffle between the legislators.

However, before the BJP members, MLA Langate was the first member marshaled out from the house when he tried to confront the BJP members for protesting in the house.

Amid the ruckus, the Speaker continued the proceedings as other BJP legislators staged a walkout and did not participate in the Motion of Thanks on LG’s address.

As the discussion on LG’s address continued, MLA Kulgam Muhammad Yusuf Tarigami urged the Speaker of the Assembly Abdul Rahim Rather to call back the opposition (BJP) members and allow them to participate in the discussion.

However, the Speaker refused saying that BJP legislators were not evicted but they staged a walkout and decided not to be part of the discussion.

“If they are not willing then why should I force them to participate in the discussion,” he said.

The Speaker announced that the BJP members did not respect the house as they did not only storm in the well of the house but stood up on the table of assembly reporters and also the table of the Secretary Assembly.

“They did not respect the chair of the Assembly Secretary which has an emblem on it. The BJP leaders stood on it with their shoes,” he said.

Earlier, the session was scheduled to culminate at 5 pm but the Speaker announced that the session would be extended by an hour considering the list of the Speakers who had to participate in the discussion.

With this, Chief Minister Omar Abdullah requested the Speaker that the first time MLAs should be given more time than the seniors as the house could utilise the time given the absence of the opposition members from the house.

“Since the opposition members are not here, we can utilise the time and give extra minutes to the first timers,” the CM said.

In the meantime, the Speaker asked the CM to respond to the LG’s address and also announced that the session was extended by 45 minutes more.

After the culmination of the speech of the CM, the Speaker moved a Motion of Thanks which was passed by the house.

Before adjourning the house, the Speaker announced that NC MLA Sajjad Shaheen had moved a privilege motion in the house against six BJP members including Leader of Opposition Sunil Sharma, for allegedly making derogatory remarks.

Besides the Leader of Opposition, the others named in the privilege motion are Sham Lal Sharma, Satish Kumar Sharma, R S Pathania, Vikram Randhawa, and Rajiv Jasrotia.

The Speaker said he had received another breach of privilege motion from NC MLA Nazir Ahmad Khan (Gurezi).

However, the Speaker did not mention the name of the person against whom the motion had been submitted.

“In both cases, I will examine and take appropriate action as per the rules,” the Speaker said.

While referring to the LG’s address, the Speaker said that the LG mentioned restoration of statehood and constitutional guarantees which were “big statements” made in the house.

“The second achievement of this house is that it passed a resolution with a majority. It is impactful,” he said.

Later, he adjourned the house sine die.