‘LA is not a Panchayat, learn to behave’
Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Mar 8: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders today engaged in heated arguments with the lone Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) MLA Mehraj Malik and National Conference legislators in the Legislative Assembly over repeated interruptions of the BJP MLAs during the budget discussions and use of objectionable words, which were either expunged from the record by the Chairman or taken back by the MLAs.
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While BJP blamed the AAP MLA from Doda Assembly segment Mehraj Malik for perpetually interrupting their legislators and not behaving properly during discussions on the Jammu and Kashmir budget, it targeted the National Conference MLAs for either uttering the objectionable words or responding to the party (BJP) legislators in the capacity of the Ministers.
As Balwant Singh Mankotia from the BJP was speaking on the UT budget, targeting the Omar Abdullah-led Government for what he called as “managements” and “adjustments” in the document to polish their image and not delivering what had been promised in the National Conference’s election manifesto, AAP’s Malik stood from his chair and started hurling counter-allegations on the BJP for not doing anything for the region.
Despite the Speaker and the BJP leaders requesting the AAP MLA to speak on his turn and let Mankotia complete his address, the latter didn’t stop and continued to blame BJP for different problems in the UT.
He even blamed Speaker for not giving him his party’s time to speak on the budget. Speaker, Abdul Rahim Rather, however, assured the MLA that he will get his time to speak but Mehraj didn’t stop from causing interruptions.
On this, BJP leaders Surjeet Singh Slathia, Chander Prakash Ganga and Sham Lal Sharma stood from their chairs, requesting Speaker to intervene and restrain the AAP MLA.
Despite Speaker’s repeated requests, the AAP MLA didn’t stop and continued to target the BJP MLA and his party.
Later, while the BJP MLA from Ramnagar Dr Sunil Bhardwaj was speaking on the budget and targeting the NC for ignoring Kashmiri Pandits, Casual Labourers in the budget, the AAP MLA Mehraj Malik stood again from the chair and started blaming BJP for the plight of Casual Labourers and other people in the UT.
He even blamed the Chairman Mubarak Gul for only granting time to speak on the budget to NC and BJP legislators while ignoring him.
On this Sham Lal Sharma asked the AAP legislator to behave properly in the Assembly and learn the Conduct and Business Rules.
This led to heated exchanges between AAP MLA and several other BJP legislators, including Balwant Singh Mankotia, Shakti Raj Parihar, RS Pathania, Choudhary Vikram Randhawa, Yudhvir Sethi, as well, who stood in support of Sham Lal Sharma and asked the chair to tell the member to behave properly.
On this, Mubarak Gul told the AAP MLA, “This is not a Panchayat. Please learn to behave.”
In between, NC MLA Shafi Ahmad Wani stood from the chair to reply certain concerns raised by the Dr Sunil Bhardwaj. He was, however, stopped by Balwant Singh Mankotia while telling the latter that he cannot respond as a legislator and the right to respond rests only with the concerned Minister.
Followed by this, Leader of Opposition, Sunil Sharma also asked the AAP MLA to learn about the dignity of the House.
He even blamed the chair for deliberately allowing the AAP MLA repeatedly interrupt the BJP legislators, claiming, “it suits the chair.” Gul, however, refuted the allegations, claiming it was not true as the other day, he too requested the Speaker Abdul Rahim Rather to tell the AAP MLA learn the Business Conduct Rules.
Meanwhile, on the request of NC MLA Altaf Ahmad Wani and some BJP leaders, the Chairman expunged certain objectionable remarks made by AAP and BJP MLAs.
As the budget discussions progressed and NC MLA Nazir Ahmad Gurezi started his budget speech, he blamed the BJP leaders of Jammu and Kashmir for celebrating the downgrading of Jammu and Kashmir’s status to a UT and exploitation of their resources by outsiders.
During his speech, he also made some objectionable remarks inadvertently, which he regretted later when Sham Lal Sharma of BJP objected to such remarks and asked the chair to either expunge the objectionable part from the record or let the legislator clarify his stand.
On this, Gurezi cleared his stance and the chair expunged his remarks.
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