Shopian Women Murder Case Rocks J&K Assembly
Over Shopian women rape and murder case, uproar broke out in the J&K Assembly with leader of opposition, Mehbooba Mufti, pulling a mike out of the Speaker’s podium and throwing it away leading to her and her party MLAs’ expulsion from the House.
Shortly after the House assembled in the morning on the opening day of budget session, Choudhary Mohammad Ramzan attempted to draw speaker Mohammad Akbara Lone’s attention to the issue to which PDP members took objection leading to the trouble.
Mufti, having led her party MLAs into the well of the House, snatched the mike and was upto wrench another while other PDP members shouted slogans and said that the Shopian rape and murder case was more significant than anything else.
The PDP members raised slogans like “Shopian kay katiloon ko pesh karo” (bring to book the culprits in the Shopian case).
In the midst of this pandemonium, Lone instructed the watch and ward staff to take away Mufti and her MLAs from the House. The watch and ward staff assisted by security personnel had to jostle with the members while taking them out.
Mufti later accused the Speaker of using “unparliamentary” language and acting more like a “ruling NC worker” in the House.
Mufti also claimed that Chief Minister Omar Abdullah was sitting there watching the Speaker using “derogatory language” against the leader of the largest opposition without registering any protest.
“He (the Speaker) should have had more patience. I had no other way. I never threw the mike at him, I just trashed the mike. I wanted to tell him that if you are ready to use force, we can also use force. This is not the way to behave with a lady,” she said.
Before directing the eviction of the PDP members, the Speaker, while pointing towards Mufti, said, “I name you, please take your seat.”
While the rest of the PDP members were escorted out, Mufti resisted for few minutes to which Lone said, “Take this lady out.”
Taking a strong exception to the behaviour of PDP members, the Speaker said he will not allow the House to function at the “sweet will” of the treasury or the opposition benches.
The three-member National Panthers Party also moved into the well of the House and raised slogans. They too were taken out of the House by the watch and ward staff.
Earlier, when the House met at 10 AM, leader of the 11-member BJP legislature group Chaman Lal Gupta accused the Speaker of skipping the Question Hour.
He said there was no need for the members to submit their questions if they could not raise them.
At this, the Speaker said, “How do you presume that the Question Hour has been skipped? There will be Question Hour.”
