Speaker played partisan role, encouraged ruckus by treasury benches: BJP

Jammu, Apr 7: Former minister and senior BJP leader Sham Lal Sharma Monday accused the Speaker Legislative Assembly, Abdul Rahim Rather of “playing a partisan role in the House by encouraging ruckus by treasury benches on the Waqf Amendment Bill.”

While speaking to the media persons outside the House, Sham said, “The Chair’s partisan role can be gauged by recalling his action against BJP members during the Srinagar session. But today when the ruling members were creating uproar, the Chair (Speaker) behaved as if he was the president of the National Conference and gave space to the treasury benches to create ruckus.”

He said his party had hoped that the Speaker would call the Business Advisory Committee meeting to ensure smooth proceedings.

“But he (Speaker) is setting wrong precedents, which is against democratic set up where the Speaker has to play neutral,” Sham said.