Refusing to give into the BJP's demand for either rolling back the special status resolution passed by the House or stepping down, Jammu and Kashmir Assembly Speaker Abdul Rahim Rather said on Thursday that 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 Assembly Secretary's chair.
They are asking the Speaker to take back the resolution. The Speaker doesn't 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 told 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asking the Centre to work out a Constitutional mechanism for restoring special status to Jammu and Kashmir that was revoked on August 5, 2019.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 welcomed by Valley-based political parties even as it invited protests by the main opposition BJP which demanded its rollback.
The passing of the resolution caused an outcry in the House since the BJP members protested it vigorously. They haven't allowed the House to function for the last two consecutive days and are demanding that the Speaker either withdraw the resolution or resign.
Instead, he ridiculed 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.
He said: "If you have no faith in me as the presiding officer of this House, the proper procedure is to remove me."
"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.
The Speaker said he has issued strict instructions to the marshals not to allow any member to enter the Well as some BJP MLAs stamped on the national emblem mounted on Assembly Secretary's chair during their protests against the resolution on Wednesday. On the marshalling out of some BJP MLAs form the House on Thursday.
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 issued directives today that if anyone steps into the Well, he should be apprehended. What does he need to do there? Anyone wants to raise a point, they should say it from their chair. How do they enter 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 PDP, 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. But 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 then the Speaker has to intimate 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.
The first-time MLAs are 51 in number, which is a big number in the current assembly. Rather 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.
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