Sanjeev Pargal/Gopal Sharma
JAMMU, Jan 9: Both Houses of Legislature today witnessed massive uproar over participation of Legislative Assembly Speaker Kavinder Gupta and Council Chairman Haji Anayat Ali in the dinner meeting hosted by Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti for PDP-BJP Alliance Ministers and legislators on January 3 saying the Presiding Officers must stay neutral as they were holding apolitical posts and can’t “act as members of their respective political parties”.
While in the Assembly, the din was settled after 17 minutes of uproar by National Conference, Congress and CPM members after the Speaker admitted having gone to the dinner but assuring the agitated members that he won’t do so in future, all Opposition members staged a walk-out in the Council after they were not satisfied with the reply given by the Chairman.
As soon as the Legislative Assembly started proceedings for the day after five-day recess, all Opposition members from NC, Congress and CPM were on their feet over Kavinder Gupta’s participation in dinner meeting hosted for Alliance legislators by the Chief Minister on January 3, which was exclusively reported by the Excelsior.
“You are not the Government or Coalition Speaker. You are Speaker of the entire House. You are custodian of the members. You should not have taken part in the meeting organized for the legislators by the Chief Minister,” Congress Legislature Party (CLP) leader Rigzin Jora said, addressing the Chair.
Last year also, he recalled, the Speaker had initially expunged remarks of Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti used against the opponents of Article 370 but had backtracked minutes later and said he was yet to examine them (the remarks).
Former Assembly Speaker and NC MLA Mubarak Gul said during the previous National Conference-Congress coalition when he was the Presiding Officer, he never attended such meetings.
“Sanctity of the House has been compromised with your participation in the political meeting,” Gul remarked.
Another National Conference MLA and former Minister Ali Mohammad Sagar described the participation of the Speaker in “political meeting and dinner” as “unprecedented” saying this hasn’t happened in the past.
CPM veteran MY Tarigami said: “it is not a simple issue which can be brushed aside. It is the issue involved with sanctity of the House. It shouldn’t be compromised. I don’t question your gentleness but you are custodian of all of us. The political parties…Ministers are much lower than your Chair. When you are the Presiding Officer, it becomes your responsibility to maintain decorum of the post”.
In the meantime, Independent MLA Engineer Rashid continued protests from his seat displaying a long banner demanding construction of tunnel in Karnah. PDP MLA Raja Manzoor was also on his feet repeatedly raising some issues, which were not audible in the din, created by the NC-Congress MLAs.
In his brief statement, Speaker Kavinder Gupta said he had taken part in the dinner meeting and if you (the Opposition members) think it was wrong he wouldn’t go to such meetings again.
This pacified the Opposition members leading to resumption of the Question Hour, which remained disrupted for 17 minutes.
Excelsior had exclusively reported in its January 5 edition that the Speaker and the Chairman, who belonged to BJP and PDP respectively, had attended the dinner meeting hosted by Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti at her official residence on January 3 to devise coalition Government’s strategy for budget session of the Legislature. Initially, the Opposition had decided to bring ‘no-confidence motion’ against the Speaker and the Chairman in the respective Houses but finding numbers heavily loaded in favour of the PDP-BJP Government and “imminent defeat” of their motion, the Opposition only protested and didn’t table the motion in any of the two Houses.
Meanwhile, the Upper House today also witnessed massive protest by opposition National Conference and Congress members, taking serious note of the Chairman attending joint PDP-BJP strategy meeting along with Speaker Legislative Assembly on January 3 at Chief Minister’s residence, followed by clashes between both the sides, disruption in proceedings for about half an hour and walk out by the entire opposition.
The trouble started in the ‘House of Elders’ immediately after the Chairman Haji Anayat Ali entered and started the normal business with an obituary reference and Question Hour. All the NC and Congress members including Ali Mohd Dar, Sajjad Ahmed Kichloo, Showkat Ganai, Qaiser Jamsheed Lone, Aga Sayed Mehmood, Naresh Gupta, Ghulam Nabi Monga, Muzaffar Parray, Thakur Balbir Singh, Sham Lal Bhagat and Rani Gargi Billowria stood up and lodged their protest with the Chairman on the development of January 3 night where they said, joining dinner by him being important Constitutional functionary and custodian of this House, was against the “ethics and rules.”
They said that Chairman by doing so, has lost the confidence of the members of this House and he should explain his position and resign from the post.
Taking lead, senior NC member Sajjad Kichloo and Congress Legislator Ghulam Nabi Monga said that it was very serious matter. The Chairman had no business to attend that strategy meeting of both the coalition partners. They said the opposition members in the Legislative Assembly have also taken serious note of it demanding reply from both the Constitutional functionaries of J&K Legislature. This is grave blunder and lapse on their part for which they owe a reply to the House. This is the question of sanctity of this ‘Chair’, they maintained.
Upon this, the members from the Treasury benches including Surinder Choudhary, Saiffudin Bhat, Firdous Tak, Vibodh Gupta, Ramesh Arora, GL Raina and Surinder Ambardar also stood up to counter the opposition. It was followed by a spree of allegations and counter allegations from both the sides. The
Leader of the House Naeem Akhtar and even Chairman tried to bring order in the House but they failed in their efforts. The Chairman tried to carry on with the ‘Questions’ and also started but it was total noise and uproar and nothing was clearly audible in the din. The proceedings in the House remained disrupted.
After protest at their benches, the NC-Congress members trooped to the well of the House at around 11.15 am. They started protest against the Chairman. They shouted slogans, ‘Sarkari Chairman Hai Hai’…. Chairman resign Karo…. and so on. It continued for long.
Minister for R&B Naeem Akhtar again intervened and tried to pacify them. He also pleaded with the Chairman that he should respond to satisfy the members protesting on the issue.
The Chairman then asked all the members to go back to their seats and agreed to give his explanation. The Chairman stated that he had not gone there in the meeting for any dinner and didn’t participate in that meeting , but just met a few new members for his personal reasons.
Not satisfied with the reply of the Chairman, the members again stood up and started protest. The proceedings were again disrupted. The Chairman continued with the questions of the members but the protest by the opposition also continued , thus disrupting proceedings. After staging protest and disrupting proceedings for about half an hour the NC and Congress members then staged walk out of the House at 11.32 am. Thereafter, the House carried on its business smoothly.
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