Srinagar Jammu and Kashmir Assembly Speaker Abdul Rahim Rather on Thursday rejected the BJP demand for either rolling back the special status resolution passed by the House or stepping down, and said if the party does not have faith in him it should bring a no-confidence motion.
He also rebuked the party for its “cheap sloganeering” and said he cannot tolerate members entering into the Well of the House and stomping over the national emblem placed on the Assembly Secretary’s chair.
“They (BJP) are asking the Speaker to take back the resolution. The Speaker does not have the powers. Anything passed by the House can only be undone by the House itself. Speakers cannot do it. The Speaker has limited powers in these issues… he has to preside, count and give decisions based on the facts before him,” Rather was quoted as saying by PTI.
The Assembly on Wednesday passed a resolution asking the Centre to work out a Constitutional mechanism for restoring special status to Jammu and Kashmir that was revoked on August 5, 2019. The resolution was hailed by Valley-based political parties while it prompted protests by the main opposition BJP which demanded its rollback.
The passage of the resolution led to an uproar in the House as the BJP members protested vociferously. They have not allowed the House to function for two consecutive days now, demanding that the Speaker either take back the resolution or step down.
Rather expressed amusement over the BJP binary of either asking him to step down or take back the resolution. “How can a speaker do it? My advice to them is to go through the assembly rules and then talk in the House,” he said.
The Speaker said if BJP members did not have faith in him as the presiding officer of the House, they should follow the proper procedure of removing him.
“I have no worries, but if they do not have faith in the Chair, shouting slogans is still not the way. There is a procedure of no-confidence motion. They should bring no confidence motion. If the House passes it, I will go back on my own whether any member tells me or not. However, they will not do that also but keep raising slogans only.
“This kind of cheap sloganeering is not done. They belong to the ruling party at the Centre. They should keep that in mind and they should be better behaved compared to others. Their behaviour is not right,” he said.
On the marshalling out of some BJP MLAs form the House on Thursday, the Speaker said he has given clear instructions to the marshals to stop any member from entering the Well as some BJP MLAs stomped over the national emblem placed on Assembly Secretary’s chair during their protests against the resolution on Wednesday.
“Yesterday, some members came into the Well of the House and stood on the Chair of the secretary, legislative assembly. There is the national emblem on his chair and they stepped on the national emblem with their shoes on.
“As a Speaker, how can I tolerate that? When I saw it yesterday, I felt extremely sad. After all, we are Indians first. We should respect our flag and the emblem,” he added.
Rather said an MLA has to lead by example for people outside the House.
“If he does such things, what will the Speaker do? So, I had given directions today that if anyone comes into the Well, he should be stopped. What is his job there? Anyone wants to speak, they should do it from their chair. How can they come in the Well and then stand on the chairs?
“There is a new woman MLA (Shagun Parihar of the BJP), she has also learned the same. She is doing the same things that the senior members are doing. She thinks this is what is to be done and she also stood on the chairs today. It has a bad effect on others,” he said.
On the resolution by a group of MLAs from Peoples Democratic Party, Peoples Conference and Awami Ittehad Party, the Speaker said he has not received it yet.
“It has not reached me. So I do not know. However, there is a proper procedure for submitting resolutions. It has to be submitted to the assembly secretariat and the secretary will examine and put it forward for orders to the Speaker. If it is admitted, the Speaker has to inform the government so that they can come prepared. You cannot bring a paper, read it in the House and call it a resolution,” he said.
Rather said there are 51 first-time MLAs in the current assembly and he has planned a training course for them before the budget session.
“I wanted to have a training session for them on how to conduct themselves in the House but due to paucity of time between the elections and the session, we could not do it. We will have it now before the budget session in Jammu,” he said.
