Storm over semantics

Srinagar, Oct 29: Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) lawmaker Shagun Parihar discovered that in politics, every sentence carries the weight of history and hurt, as her remarks about a particular community sparked a political tempest in the Jammu and Kashmir Legislative Assembly on Wednesday.

During the Zero Hour, the Legislative Assembly witnessed uproar over “controversial” remarks made by the BJP lawmaker when she said that a village in her constituency was neglected for many years for being inhabited by members of the minority community.

“The roads in the area are in dilapidated conditions. The village is being deliberately neglected for having a population of the minority community,” Parihar said.

Her remarks triggered heated arguments in the House between the treasury benches and the BJP members.

The NC MLAs supported by Congress MLA from Wagoora-Kreeri, Irfan Hafiz Lone, and independent MLA from Shopian, Shabir Ahmad Kullay, said that the BJP member was trying to create a “communal divide” by using controversial remarks in the House.

“People from all religions are nationalists. All are working for the betterment of the nation. The remarks used by the BJP MLA should be expunged,” Deputy Chief Minister Surinder Choudhary said.

“BJP MLA (Shagun Parihar) is new to the House. She should avoid using such controversial remarks,” he said.

The Deputy CM said that people from all religions live in Gandhi’s India and believe in equality.

Parihar reacted, saying that when PDP MLAs said that a particular community had adopted a “divide and rule policy”, why didn’t the government (treasury benches) object to it?

She continued her speech, saying that her area had been neglected by the government.

As she continued, NC MLA from Gurez, Nazir Ahmad Khan (Gurezi), NC MLA from Pahalgam, Altaf Ahmad Wani (Kaloo), and Minister Javed Ahmad Dar demanded Parihar’s remarks be expunged.

“We understand that she is new to the House, and we will treat it as a slip of the tongue. We urge the Speaker to expunge her controversial remarks from the records,” Dar said.

Later, Speaker Abdul Rahim Rather asked the BJP MLA to avoid using controversial remarks while speaking in the House.

“You are new to the House and we wish you prosper in your career, but you should not resort to using controversial remarks,” the Speaker said. “Don’t do it.”