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| MLAs, MLCs finally surrender on VK Singh 'contempt' | | | ET Report
JAMMU, Mar 4: When the former Army chief Gen. (retd.) V.K. Singh uncovered the Jammu and Kashmir Ministers' extra-curricular activity of grabbing huge secret funds from the Central agencies in September last year, there was a political choreography in either House of the State Legislature in the autumn session in Srinagar.
Minister of Agriculture Ghulam Hassan Mir, who, according to VK Singh used to receive secret funds in crores from the Army's Technical Support Division, showed no hesitation to remain firmly seated through the session. "I assure you colleagues, I have done nothing that would make you ashamed", he said on the floor of the Assembly
It appeared Mir alone was not the recipient or the beneficiary. In the race of being 'politically correct' in the valley, every legislator from the ruling National Conference (NC) to the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) began boarding the bandwagon of rhetoric and populism. The masters of the competitive separatism outsmarted one another in their jostling of teaching the retired Army chief a lesson.
"He should be brought handcuffed to explain his position", said an MLA. "He should be got immediately arrested and made accountable before this august House", said another. "He has discredited the Indian democratic institutions", said yet another MLA or MLC. "We were already being taunted with being the agents of the Centre and Delhi's agencies. Now, how could be contradict the allegation?", asked another MLC.
Before the PDP would up the ante, National Conference dominated the show in both the Houses. In Legislative Council, NC's all-important MLC Devinder Singh Rana commandeered a motion, alongwith colleagues Ajay Sadhotra and Khalid Najeeb Suharwardy, seeking Singh's appearance before the Upper House for his clarification to the interview. Chairman Amrit Malhotra held it for a few days but finally referred the matter to the House's Privilege Committee.
Despite much of heat and smoke, the panel never succeeded to cause Singh's presence. Chairman himself described the summons as "invitation". Mr Rana made proactive statements stressing publicly on the necessity of VK Singh's attendance and a clarification to his statement. Some others threatened to file defamation suits.
Not once did the NC's motion movers insist on calling the accused to the Upper House till the current sessions comes to it end on Wednesday. Messers Rana, Sadhotra and Suharwardy must speak as to what made withdraw their demand. Was there pressure from Delhi? Was there a threat of "exposure" of all the legislators? Did VK Singh use the good offices of Mr Rana's father-in-law who served as Captain in the Indian Army before joining the Indian administrative service in his home State? Or was there a word of wisdom from the BJP lover Farooq Abdullah?
In the Lower House too, as many as 15 of the NC MLAs moved a resolution. Days later, Speaker Mubarak Gul announced to summon the accused for his clarification. For hours, the Opposition MLAs from Mehbooba Mufti and Engineer Rashid to Yousuf Tarigami and Hakeem Yasin shouted that "nothing short of getting the accused handcuffed" would be acceptable to them. Speaker pleaded firmly that he would call VK Singh through a letter. But the MLAs remained unrelenting. Finally, when the Speaker backtracked and he just wrote a letter, there was no murmur of protest or objection from any of these vociferous MLAs.
The 15 NC MLAs, who included a number of the former Ministers, initially insisted that Singh's assertion would discredit each and every individual associated with the Indian democratic institutions or the upcoming elections. However, expediency had its way soon as none of them bothered to even remind the Speaker and ask him what had happened to their motion.
VK Singh's joining of the BJP served as an affront to the J&K legislators who exhausted their eloquence to assert that they would never compromise on "dignity". Now that they have eaten the humble pie, one would ask them: "Have you got your dignity restored?." |
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