Noisy scenes were witnessed in the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly on Tuesday when BJP members displayed banners demanding the establishment of the National Law University in Jammu. The National Conference and PDP MLAs countered them by raising the incidents of alleged harassment of Kashmiris in other states.
As the House assembled, BJP MLA Surjit Singh Salathia raised the issue of Jammu University students who are on the roads in support of the demand for the establishment of the NLU here.
“We are not against granting a separate NLU for Kashmir, but also want one such university for Jammu to fulfil the demand of the students of the region,” he said.
While Salathia was speaking, other BJP MLAs also stood up and displayed placards in support of the demand and raised slogans like “NLU for Jammu”.
Congress MLA Nizam-ud-Din Bhat objected to the display of placards and said the recent meeting of the business advisory committee decided to maintain the decorum of the House while raising any issue.
“The action of displaying placards by BJP legislators is similar to encroachment and intrusion, which is not acceptable. The government had granted permission for NLU in Kashmir following due process,” he said.
Speaker Abdul Rahim Rather continued with the Question Hour amid the noisy scenes and dismissed the adjournment motion moved by PDP MLA Wahid Para to discuss the incidents of “hate crime” against Kashmiris elsewhere in the country.
Amid the ruckus, National Conference legislator Mubarak Gul alleged that Kashmiri students and traders are facing harassment and assault in different parts of the country, which is not acceptable.
National Conference MLA Saifullah Mir alleged that dozens of Kashmiris living outside J&K are not allowed to move out of their accommodations and are facing assault if they come out, which needs government intervention.
The Speaker ruled that there is no question of an adjournment motion because the issues raised can be taken up through other means in an appropriate manner without disrupting the Question Hour, which can be used to make the government accountable.
He said the J&K government has already taken up the issue of harassment of Kashmiris with various state governments and is thankful to the Uttarakhand chief minister for taking immediate action in one such recent incident.
Earlier in the morning, the ruling National Conference (NC) MLAs staged a sit-in outside the assembly, pressing for immediate restoration of J&K’s statehood—an issue they noted was conspicuously absent from Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha’s address on Monday. PDP’s Muntazir Mehdi joined the sit-in, aligning with demands for statehood and the protection of Kashmiri students nationwide.