Sheikh Saleem
Srinagar, October 07
Speaker of JK Assembly Kavinder Gupta Wednesday revoked the suspension order of two legislators of National Conference (NC) who were suspended on Tuesday for disrupting the proceeding the house.
As the business of the house started at 10am, Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed urged the speaker to revoke the decision. Mufti said the opposition has a role to play in the house. He said house doesn’t look good without opposition “Opposition’s role is to oppose, depose and expose. If they won’t do it here, where will they oppose then,” he said adding that the Legislature is the right forum to discuss all issues of public importance.
Mufti said a healthy debate on important issues concerning the people cannot be deliberated upon if opposition boycotts the rest of the Session. Describing democracy as a battle of ideas, Mufti Sayeed asked NC legislators to reconsider their decision and return to the Legislature. “We are here to debate. The government wants to respond to their queries,” he added.
After chief minister’s intervention, speaker revoked the decision. Speaker asked senior member of the house and CPI(M) M Yusuf Tarigami to inform the opposition members about the decision. “I don’t want to suspend anyone but such circumstances prevailed in the house which forced me to take the decision,” speaker said.
Tarigami later informed the house that NC is not ready to come back to the house as two MLCs were still under suspension.
Chief Minister also appreciated the role of the Speaker in trying to restore order in the House for the last two days “Amidst utter pandemonium, you tried to restore the dignity of the House,” he said, while referring to frequent adjournments of the House proceedings.
As the house resumed the question hour, congress members demanded debate on the issue of flood relief, border shelling and daily wagers.
Congress member GM Saroori urged the speaker to adjourn the question hour to discuss the matter. He sought assurance from the speaker to debate the issue on any day of the autumn session. However speaker told him that their request will be considered.
The congress members later staged walk out from the assembly leaving most of the opposition benches empty.MLA Langate Er Abdul Rasheed was the only opposNewition member in the house during question hour.
As the engineer Rasheed was the only opposition member and came into the well of the house wanting the speaker to allow him to speak,.
For some time the he created ruckus in the assembly and tried to disrupted Minister for PHE Sukhnandan Kumar to reply to a question. Both entered into a verbal brawl. Protesting legislator nearly ecame to blows with BJP MLA Ravinder Raina.
Later Minister for Law and parliamentary Affairs Syed Basharat Bukhari urged the speaker to allow Rasheed to speak.
Later speaker granted time to the legislator to speak during question hour. He demanded that his Beef Ban Bill should be taken up earlier for discussion. “The bill is on number 17 Kindly bring it at top so that it can be discussed during session. I want an assurance from your good self,” Rashid addressed Speaker, Kavinder Gupta. “I’ll discuss about it and will be back to you,” Speaker replied.
COUNCIL
As legislative council started its business at 11am, members GN Monga and Naresh Gupta urged the chairman of the house Haji Anayat Ali to revoke the suspension of the opposition members. Later Deputy Chief Minister Nirmal Singh also urged the speaker to revoke the decision. Members said the opposition is important and their boycott will affect the normal functioning of the house. They said debating public interest issues will be affected by the boycott of the opposition.
Chairman of the house later revoked the decision on the request of the members and asked Monga and Gupta to inform the opposition about the decision.
As the question hour started, congress members demanded adjournment of the question hour to debate the issue of tax on Vaishno Devi pilgrims.
As the speaker refused, the members staged walk out leaving opposition benches empty.