Jammu, March 2
The Assembly today witnessed a piquant situation when one ruling National Conference member, Mr Jagjivan Lal, was dragged out of the House by the watch and ward staff on the orders of the Speaker, Mr Abdul Ahad Vakil.
The trouble arose when Mr Jagjivan Lal interrupted one PDP member, Mr Abdul Rahman Veeri, during the question hour. Mr Veeri shot back telling Mr Lal to keep his mouth “shut”. Mr Lal tried to protest over it and when the Speaker did not allow him to speak, he marched to the well of the House and staged a dharna.
Mr Vakil advised him to behave properly as he was a senior member of the House and a former Minister. When Mr Jagjivan Lal did not budge from the well of the House, the Speaker ordered the watch and ward personnel to throw out Mr Lal. Mr Lal tried to resist but the security staff “bundled” him out of the House and the Speaker warned him that in case he did not behave properly he would suspend him.
Mr Lal did not return to the House for more than half an hour. One BJP member, Mr Prithvi Chand, requested the Speaker to allow Mr Lal to come. Mr Vakil informed Mr Prithvi Chand that Mr Lal had not been suspended and he could enter the House at any time and within minutes Mr Lal was back in his seat.
During the zero hour, Sadiq Ali of the National Conference drew the attention of the House to an ‘unfortunate’ development in Afghanistan where the fundamentalists had started smashing the statues and idols of saints belonging to different religions. He said that for the average Kashmiris this was an unfortunate development because the people in Kashmir had been believers in shrines of various saints belonging to different faiths. He wanted the House to adopt a resolution condemning the developments in Afghanistan.
During the same hour, one BJP member, Mr Shiv Charan Gupta, said that the House should condemn yesterday’s attack on the Army in Anantnag in which one Colonel and one jawan was killed. He said, “Whenever a civilian was killed, we usually condemn the killing”, but both the legislators and the government are silent when security personnel get killed in militant attacks.
The Public Health Engineering Minister, Mr Ali Mohammad Sagar, who is at present holding the charge of Home also, informed the House the case had been registered and investigations ordered in the incident.
Mr Gupta wanted the government to take all possible measures to prevent militants from attacking the security pickets and Army convoys because during the past three months, militancy-related activities in the state had witnessed a sharp increase.
A Congress member, Mr Lal Singh, said that it was unfortunate that hardly three to four policemen accompanied a van carrying Rs 1 crore from Kathua to Basholi yesterday. He said the van was ambushed and two policemen were killed and five others were wounded. He demanded that adequate security arrangements should be made for vehicles carrying cash.
