Cacophony in J&K Assembly during MLAs' oath taking ceremony

Jammu, Jan 20: Noisy scenes were witnessed during oath ceremony of newly elected members to 11th Jammu and Kashmir Assembly here on Tuesday over the languages and terms used during the event. Peoples Democratic Party members objected when BJP Pradesh President Ashok Khajuria who took oath in Dogri sweared in the name of "Shri Mata Vaishno Devi". PDP said the reference should have been "God or Parmatma". When they continued objecting to use of Mata Vaishno Devi, Khajuria used the word "parmatma" while concluding his oath. The two MLAs of Jammu and Kashmir National Panthers Party including Balwant Singh Mankotia from Udhampur and Yashpal Kundal alongwith all the eleven MLAs of BJP took oath in Dogri. They however, objected to the absence of oath format in Dogri. Objections were also raised by members of the House when Nazir Ahmed Gurezi of National Conference (NC) started taking oath in his own Sheena language. However, he defended taking the oath in the language saying that it was a recognized language of 6th Schedule of the J&K Constitution. Later, Protem Speaker Choudhary Mohammad Aslam allowed him to take the oath in that language. According to section 87 of the J&K Constitution, if a member does not feel comfortable in taking oath in the 'officially approved" languages, he can take oath in his mother tongue. Balwant Singh Mankotia and Nazir Gurezi had also taken oath of MLA in Dogri and Sheena language during 2002 inviting objection from treasury and opposition benches. Another independent member from Langate, Abdul Rasheed Shah, took oath in Kashmiri language but there was no objection from Treasury and Opposition benches. The Chief Minister Omar Abdullah was the first to be administered oath followed by Deputy Chief Minister Tara Chand, Cabinet ministers and then NC president and MLA Farooq Abdullah followed by other MLAs. The prominent among those who did not take oath Tuesday were two former chief ministers Mufti Mohammad Sayeed and Ghulam Nabi Azad and ex-Dy chief minister Muzaffar Beg. (NAK)

Add to: del.icio.us | Digg