Senior National Conference legislator from Mendhar, Javed Rana, on Wednesday accused the Speaker of Jammu & Kashmir Assembly of taking directions from Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) to promote hardcore ‘Hindutva’ agenda on the floor of the Assembly. Rana also advised the Speaker to take some lessons on how to run the House.
Rana had earlier triggered a storm in the House on Tuesday before staging a walkout after he was denied an opportunity to take part in the debate on Budget. Before stepping out of the lower House, Rana raised pointing fingers towards Speaker Kavinder Gupta and called him a ‘Hindu Speaker’ and ‘BJP Speaker’.
The issue rocked the State Assembly on Wednesday soon after the House reconvened. Demanding expulsion of the National Conference legislator, the BJP legislators disrupted the Question Hour for over 15 minutes. leader of the Opposition, Omar Abdullah maintained silence even as members from the Treasury Benches demanded an apology from all NC legislators.
leader of Congress, Nawang Rigzin Zora and CPI (M) MlA MY Tarigami also intervened and condemned the remarks made by Rana against the Speaker. Clarifying his position, Speaker informed the members that during the discussion on Budget, he had allotted adequate time to all the parties on the basis of their total strength in the House”. As Speaker revealed National Conference legislators consumed more time than allotted, NC legislators maintained every member should respect the Chair as there is no scope of showing disrespect.
Ironically, after the Question Hour, Javed Rana once again accused the Speaker of preventing him from speaking on the grants of Finance department. Javed Rana told reporters that the Speaker was running the House on the directions from RSS and not allowing legislators from backward areas to raise issues of general public affected by the cross-border firing and militant related violence. He said Speaker is allowing BJP legislators, PDP legislators but preventing the Opposition members from participating in the discussion.