To lodge a protest against the ruling National Conference's decision to gag the voice of the opposition, the BJP held a parallel assembly on Friday on the premises of the Legislative Assembly in Srinagar.
BJP members held a mock session in the lawns of the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly after half of its members were marshaled out while the other half staged a walkout of the House to protest against the special status resolution.
Soon after the BJP MLAs were marshaled out from the Assembly, all the 28 MLAs of BJP Friday staged a parallel Assembly in the laws of Legislative Assembly complex Srinagar.
Charging the Speaker of the Legislative Assembly Abdul Rahim Rather with behaving like a ruling party MLA, the Leader of the Opposition, Sunil Sharma alleged that the resolution seeking special status for Jammu and Kashmir was drafted by Rather.
"It is very unfortunate instead of working neutral, the Speaker is behaving like the ruling party member in the House. On the directions of the Speaker, Marshals of the Assembly manhandled BJP MLAs on Thursday just to terrorize opposition members", Sharma said and regretted that violent means were used to stifle the voice of opposition in the Assembly.
"Today will be marked as a dark day in the history of Jammu and Kashmir and its democratic traditions. For the past three days, the Speaker has acted in favor of the National Conference and has been suppressing the opposition's voice", Sharma said.
BJP leader acts as Speaker in parallel Assembly
Former Minister and BJP leader Sham Lal Sharma acted as the "Speaker of the House" in the parallel Legislative Assembly and other members spoke the way they spoke in the real House.
Sitting in a circle on the lawn of the Assembly complex, Sham Lal Sharma sat on a Chair to look like the Speaker of the House while other BJP MLAs spoke one by one as if a "real assembly was going on."
"The NC wants bloodshed in Kashmir again. I want to thank Speaker Abdur Rahim Rather for allowing us to hold this real Assembly," he said. Sham Lal Sharma said now he calls upon BJP MLA R S Pathania to speak.
"This the real Assembly, not the one that is inside. We came here to raise the people's issues but we saw business being changed. We came here to speak at the LG's address but we saw a resolution on special status," he said. Pathania said that before bringing any resolution, 15 advance notice is supposed to be given to the members of the House. Other members of the BJP spoke one by one giving the impression that a parallel Assembly was going on.
