Chaos mars J&K House session

Mehbooba throws down mike

The PDP legislators were removed from the House immediatly after the incident. The incident occurred when Mehbooba tried to raise the Shopian rape and murder case and started to speak during obituary references. The Speaker did not allow her to speak.

She and her party legislators raised slogans, demanding the arrest of those behind the rape and murder of a teenaged girl and her sister-in-law in Shopian. They moved into the well of the House and continued raising slogans.

Mehbooba moved towards the Speaker’s podium and both of them were seen exchanging hot words.

Mehbooba wrenched a mike from Lone’s podium and threw it down. She tried to take another mike but could not do so as it was tightly fixed there.

Later, as per the orders of the Speaker, the marshals took the PDP legislators out of the Assembly. The Opposition leaders later staged a protest sit-in in front of the Assembly complex and demanded the arrest of those responsible for Shopian incident. They said they would continue their protest till the culprits were arrested.

Abusive language

Later, Mehbooba alleged, while talking to the media,  that the Speaker behaved undemocratically and used abusive language against her. “He told the marshals to throw this lady (me) out. I strongly protested against his language. By throwing the mike down, I tried to tell him as to what it means by throwing out a person,” she said.

The PDP leader alleged that while the Speaker allowed MLAs from the National Conference (NC) and the Bharatiya Janata Party to speak on other issues, she was denied a chance to speak.

Lone, during his interaction with the media, accused Mehbooba of threatening him and disrespecting the chair of the Speaker. “I did not use any abusive language and in fact requested her to behave as per the norms,” he said.

He pointed out that raising of other issues was not permitted  during obituary references.

After the PDP leaders were marshaled out, the proceedings of the Assembly re-started. Chief Minister Omar Abdullah  criticised the PDP for the unprecedented noisy scenes and said: “Elections cannot be won by throwing mikes and papers.”

Later, CPM member Mohammad Yusuf Tarigami requested the House to bring back the PDP members saying the business of the Assembly could not be run in the absence of the main Opposition party.

 He said  the state government would have to take the Opposition along on important issues. Subsequently, the Speaker withdrew his earlier order and  a word was sent to the Opposition MLAs to return to the Assembly, but they did not come back.

DH News Service