J-K: Oppn stalls Assembly in protest against Speaker's remarks

Uproarious scenes were witnessed in the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly today as the opposition cornered the Speaker over his remarks on slogans raised yesterday by Congress MLAs.
Speaker Kavinder Gupta had said the opposition had lowered the prestige of the House by raising anti-national slogans of "Kashmir banega Pakistan (Kashmir will become Pakistan)" yesterday.
Strongly denying the charge, the opposition members disrupted the question hour by resorting to sloganeering while some of them trooped into the Well of the House asking the Speaker to take back his remarks.
Congress Legislative Party leader Nawang Rigzin Jora denied that any "anti-national" slogans were raised or unparliamentary language used against the Speaker.

Jora, however, said that the party had accused Gupta of being communal and an RSS man.
CPI(M) MLA M Y Tarigami said no member in the House had resorted to such slogans, adding that such remarks should not have come from the Chair. He also requested the Speaker to take back his remarks.

Jora had yesterday said the Congress MLAs were raising slogans like "PDP ka kya farman, Kashmir banega kabristan (what is PDP's call, Kashmir should become a graveyard)" and "PDP ki kya pehachan, Kashmir banega Nagpur (what is PDP's identity, Kashmir will become Nagpur, a reference to RSS headquarters)".

He had said these remarks were misinterpreted by the Speaker, while threatening to move a no-confidence motion against him along with other opposition parties.
Intervening in the house, Deputy Chief Minister Nirmal Singh said the opposition members should not raise any question mark on the Chair by using certain words. "The opposition should not say so," he said, requesting the Speaker to give a proper ruling and resolve the issue.
Amid the uproar and protests which continued for more than 40 minutes, the speaker said, "If I have heard anything in wrong connotation I take my words back."
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Unlike the past, NC MLA Mubarak Gul pout up a chair in well of the House when the Speaker was addressed jointly by opposition members.
During the adjournment opposition members continued to sit in the House.
Unruly scenes continued soon after the House met as the opposition members accused the government of not being serious in running the House.
NC member Ali Mohammed Sagar said that the government was hiding behind the issue of 2010 and holding the Kashmiri people responsible for the unrest.
The opposition again stood from their chairs and raised slogans against the government demanding a judicial probe by a sitting Supreme Court judge into the Kashmir unrest.

Heated exchange of words were witnessed between Congress and PDP, when Noor Mohammed Sheikh of PDP levelled personal allegations against the Congress member Usman Majid.
The comment was, however, expunged by the Speaker.
As the opposition members were raising slogans, Speaker Kavinder Gupta said the decorum of the house was not being followed and anti national and pro Pakistan slogans were being raised by the opposition members in the house.
Soon after Speaker's remarks, the opposition members stormed into the Well and raised slogans against him.
They protested and stood on the table in front of the speaker and raised slogans against him.

As pandemonium continued, the Speaker adjourned the House for the day.
Later, speaking to the media, leader of Congress Legislative Party Nawang Rigzin Jora said they will approach the governor against the Speaker and bring a no confidence motion against him for speaking a lie in the House.
"I was raising slogan like 'PDP ka nara kya, Kashmir Banega Kabristan', but what the Speaker spoke is not true in the Assembly stating that we raised some pro-Pakistan slogan.
"We have lost confidence in him as he has time and again from the chair said that he is a RSS man, we will approach the government and also bring a no confidence motion against him," Jora said.