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| Uproar in House | | | EARLY TIMES REPORT
Jammu, Jan 20: While assertion of linguistic identity remained major attraction of the occasion, commotion was created in the Legislative Assembly today when state BJP President and MLA from Jammu East Ashok Khajuria sought to swear in the name of Mata Vaishno Devi instead of Parmatma.
Meanwhile, all members of BJP, two members from Panthers Party and one independent legislator took oath in Dogri. Similarly, the National Conference MLA from Gurez took oath in his mother tongue Shina and independent MLA from Langate took oath in Kashmiri. All other MLAs took oath either in Urdu or English.
The opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) members created a furore when BJP state president Ashok Khajuria took oath in Dogri and referred to 'Vaishnodevi Mata' in place of 'Parmatma'. He later had to use the word 'Parmatma' while concluding his oath. All eleven BJP members, who wore saffron coloured turbans, took oath in Dogri.
Objections were also raised by members of the house when Nazir Ahmed Gurezi of the National Conference (NC) took oath in Shina (Dardi) language. He, however, defended himself saying Shina was a recognised language in the 6th schedule of the J&K constitution and was allowed to continue.
Earlier, Jammu and Kashmir National Panthers Party (JKNPP) created a ruckus in the assembly when speaker Pro-tem Choudhary Mohammad Aslam was administering oath to Chief Minister Omar Abdullah and alleged that the new coalition government was discriminating against Jammu region.
As the cacophony continued, some members from the treasury bench protested saying this was not the occasion to raise such issues. Abdullah, however, completed his oath in the din.
Amid the cacophony, JKNPP leader Harshdev Singh suggested to the chair that there was a need to issue a proper format of taking oath in different languages as per the sixth schedule of the J&K constitution.
While Congress member from Ramban Ashok Kumar took oath in Hindi, another independent member from Langate Abdul Rasheed Shah took oath in Kashmiri.
Two JKNPP members- Yashpal Kundal from Samba and Balwant Singh Mankotia from Udhampur- also took oath in Dogri language but their party leader Singh took oath in English.
The ceremony began at 1000 hours and concluded around noon with most of the members taking oath either in English or Urdu languages. These also included three women members- PDP president Mehbooba Mufti and NC's Sakina Ittoo and Shamima Firdous.
Former Chief Minister and President of NC Farooq Abdullah left the house immediately after taking the oath. |
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