The Jammu & Kashmir Assembly witnessed a rare obituary reference on Thursday when BJP legislators paid tribute to Jana Sangh founder Syama Prasad Mookerjee, to the annoyance of many legislators.
It was State BJP chief Sat Paul Sharma who stood up to praise Mr. Mookerjee on his death anniversary. Mr. Sharma claimed that Mr. Mookerjee, a proponent of Ek Pradhan, Ek Vidhan and Ek Nishan (one ruler, one constitution, one symbol) was murdered during Sheikh Muhammad Abdullah’s rule.
“We pay tributes to our ideologue, who was ruthlessly killed in Srinagar,” Mr. Sharma told the Assembly.
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Taking umbrage, independent legislator Engineer Rasheed said Kashmir had already rejected Mookerjee and he was of no importance. “The BJP ideologue had had ill-intentioned dreams about J&K but we will never allow those dreams to be fulfilled.”
Mr. Rashid said the House “cannot pay tributes to Mookerjee whom the State sees as an anti-State element.”
Meanwhile, the State unit of the BJP organised ‘Balidan Devas’ in Srinagar to commemorate him. Five minutes silence was also observed outside the Assembly complex by BJP legislators Ashok Khajuria, Ramesh Arora, Vibodh Gupta, Ajad Shastru, Charanjeet Khalsa, Sofi Yousuf and Surinder Amberdar.
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“Mookerjee’s deeds and concept about total accession of J&K is known to everyone. He was a legend who sacrificed his life for total integration. We express our commitment that we will follow the path of the great leader and his commitment towards the State and the nation,” said a BJP spokesman.