The resolution seeking clemency for the Parliament attack case convict, Afzal Guru, could not be taken up in the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly on Wednesday, as pandemonium broke out and the House was adjourned after Congress and Bhartiya Janata Party members clashed.
As soon as the House assembled, Vikar Rasool, Ghulam Ahmad Mir, Ashok Kumar, Muhammad Sharief Niyaz and Indu Pawar of the Congress questioned the presence of BJP members who had been suspended by the party for their alleged involvement in crossing-voting in the Council elections held a few months ago.
“BJP MLAs have been expelled. We want to know the names of suspended BJP legislators as they are sitting illegally in the House. They have gobbled crores of rupees through the cash-for-votes scam,” the Congress legislators alleged.
Irked at this remark, 11 BJP MLAs were on their feet, shouting slogans against the Congress: Mercy resolution ko drop karo karo. Jo mangega Pakistan us ko dengay kabristan. Rishwat khor sarkar hai hai, sex scandal sarkar, hai hai (Drop the mercy resolution. Whoever asks for Pakistan, we will give them a graveyard. The government is tainted by bribe and sex scandals.)
This prompted the Congress members to storm the well. Amid sloganeering by both sides, Congress Ministers and Deputy Chief Minister Tara Chand stood up to back their MLAs. Chief Minister Omar Abdullah, his National Conference Ministers and MLAs, as well as People's Democratic Party legislators were silent.
Speaker Mohammad Akbar Lone twice adjourned the House, even as the unruly scenes continued. The BJP leaders jumped into the well and raised counter-slogans.
Independent Sheikh Abdur Rasheed, who sponsored the resolution, was angry, kicking table fans.
The Speaker said: “You [the BJP and the Congress] have converted the Assembly into a fish market. This is very unfortunate. I adjourn the House till tomorrow [Thursday].”
Outside the House, Mr. Rasheed said he was shocked at the way the “drama was enacted” to sabotage the resolution. “Everybody was exposed today. It is clear that the NC, the Congress and even PDP had directions from New Delhi to sabotage my resolution,” he said. “A well-planned conspiracy was hatched by the Congress, the NC and the PDP to scuttle it.”Mr. Rasheed did not spare both factions of the Hurriyat Conference either. “It is unfortunate that they [the separatists] did not utter a word over my resolution.”
Asked why the PDP chose to remain silent, Muzaffar Hussain Beigh, a senior leader of the party, said had it resorted to sloganeering that would have become an excuse for the Speaker to adjourn the House on the pretext that the PDP sabotaged the resolution, which sought clemency for Afzal Guru, who is on death row.
In an informal chat with journalists, the Speaker regretted that the PDP remained silent during the BJP-Congress clash as if nothing happened. “They [the PDP] should have backed the moving of the resolution when he rose, which would have helped to do the business listed for the day.” On the fate of the resolution, Mr. Lone said that as per rules, any listed business that did not come up for discussion would lapse. However, a member was not barred from coming up with another resolution.
