Nirmal Singh was on Thursday elected Speaker of the Jammu and Kashmir Legislative Assembly, despite a strong protest by the opposition parties that criticised the way the election process unfolded in the House to choose a new speaker.
Just before a brief session of the Assembly began, National Conference and Congress decided to field Usman Majeed against Singh to protest against the government’s cavalier way of approach to elect the Speaker. Normally Speaker of the house is elected unanimously.
The senior National Conference leader, Muhammad Shafi Uri, was the first to denounce the way in which the process was violated. “As per rules governing the speaker’s election, the secretary Assembly shall send notice to every member about the date of the election through telegram, but this rule has not been adhered to. You issued notification for the election yesterday and many members are not present here. Is this the way of conducting the election?” he questioned.
He also demanded that Nirmal Singh’s nomination papers should be rejected.”We have come to know that he has filed nomination papers before issuance of the notification. This is a mockery of the entire process.” he said.
As other opposition members also protested against the election, the deputy Speaker Nazir Gurezi turned down their objections. But at the same time, he adjourned the House for half an hour, saying the House is divided over the election of the Speaker.
He said the Speaker was always elected unanimously and there is a need to build consensus over it first. After the House was adjourned, there were negotiations between the government and the opposition with the former trying its best to convince the latter to support Singh.
“But the opposition did not relent and demanded that they will support Singh only if due procedure is followed,” a legislator privy to the discussions told Greater Kashmir. When the House again assembled at 3:25 PM, a few opposition members stood up and protested against the holding of the election at a very short notice.
“A gap of 5-6 days has always been maintained between issuance of notification and the date of election for the speaker of Lok Sabha,” Shafi Uri said. His party colleague Ali Muhammad Sagar said they will support the ruling combine’s candidate only if proper procedure is followed. As the opposition refused to budge from its stand, Gurezi went ahead with the election.
All the MLAs of the ruling combine present in the House voted in favour of Singh while the opposition voted against him. Subsequently, the deputy Speaker declared that Singh has been elected as Speaker of the House. Later, the entire opposition excluding Mian Altaf, Muhammad Yosouf Tarigami and Er Rashid staged a walk-out from the House.
After the election, Singh was taken to the Speaker’s chair by Chief Minister, Mehbooba Mufti, Minister for Law and Parliamentary Affairs, Basharat Bukhari, Minister for Urban Development, Sat Pal Sharma, Deputy Speaker Nazir Gurezi, Mian Altaf, M Y Trigram and Er Abdul Rashid.
Later, talking to reporters, Singh said that Army chief has given a message that there is no space for violence in Kashmir. “Whatever Army chief has said, it is a clear message that India is a democracy and there is no space for violence,” he said.
Army chief General Bipin Rawat had told a New Delhi newspaper that Azadi is not possible as “they will always fight those who seek Azadi in Kashmir.” During the proceedings of the House, MLA Langate, Er. Rashid slammed the government for the induction of Rajiv Jasrotia in the cabinet. He also slammed the BJP and Army Chief for opposing the ceasefire in Kashmir. “It is painful that within 24 hours of the all- party BJP and Army are rejecting the idea of cease fire,” he said.