One of the biggest crises happened in the Jammu and Kashmir Legislative Assembly on Thursday when Khurshid Ahmad Sheikh, an MLA of Langate and brother of jailed LoP engineer Rashid, waved a banner that read, ‘We want our Article 370, 35A and our political prisoners’.
The board with the slogan “We demand restoration of Article 370 and 35A.” ’Release of political prisoners” was demonstrated by Sheikh in the well of the House, which created a hot fisticuff among parliamentarians.
When Sheikh continued to stand with the banner, Leader of the Opposition BJP Sunil Sharma objected, and marshals had to intervene to prevent him from proceeding. Let alone the Speaker’s directions to him to sit down, Sheikh continued this, and that is when BJP members tried to take the banner in his hand. This soon descended to wrestling between the two legislators, adding to the confusion. The situation deteriorated into a free-for-all fight.
A PDP MLA from Pulwama, Waheed Para, had to defend Sheikh from the BJP members in the conflict that exposed the growing political fissure in the House. Organizations and leaders of the People’s Conference, such as its chairman, Sajad Lone, opposed the action of the Government of India by passing a motion to denounce the revocation of Article 370.
The resolution, in which opposition MLAs actively participated, supported the government’s move in wordage and strongly condemned the decisions made by the Centre to abrogate Articles 370 and 35 A. The resolution also rejected the Jammu & Kashmir Reorganisation Act of 2019, which downgraded the region and removed its special status as a state. The opposition leaders called for restoring everything that was removed by the 2019 Act, including Article 370 and Article 35 A, without alteration.
The adopted resolution pointed out that the government backstop has eroded the constitutional rights of Jammu & Kashmir as well as the rights of its inhabitants.
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