PDP candidate for Pulwama Assembly seat Waheed ur Rehman Parra. File Photo: Imran Nissar/The Hindu
Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) legislator Waheed-ur-Rehman Parra and J&K Peoples Conference chief Sajad Lone on Tuesday (February 4, 2025) accused the Business Rules Committee of the Jammu and Kashmir Legislative Assembly of a “historic betrayal” and “ratification” of the decisions about J&K made by the Union government on August 5, 2019. The committee is chaired by the ruling National Conference (NC).
“The modified Business Rules prepared by the NC-headed committee under the J&K Reorganisation Act are a stamp, ratification, and validation of the decisions made for J&K. The Centre made the August 5, 2019 decisions by sidelining the people’s will. The current J&K Assembly may be weak, but the Business Rules pushed through it will be a historic betrayal to the people of J&K and to the J&K Constitution, which already stands erased,” Mr. Parra said.
The Business Rules Committee is headed by Speaker Abdul Rahim Rather of the NC, and is mandated to finalise amendments to the Rules ahead of the upcoming J&K Budget Session which begins on March 3. The rules have not been made public yet, though the committee has met thrice since its constitution on December 24, 2024.
‘Permanent structural changes’
However, PDP MLA Mr. Parra alleged that the amended Rules, which have been reported about in the media, do not make any references to the J&K Constitution, the J&K Legislative Council, or the Joint Select Committee.
“In spite of the absolute majority on NC’s side, these permanent and structural changes will set the course of the future of the people. The ruling NC has the support of 50 MLAs and claimed to pass a resolution on J&K’s special status. But these Business Rules are in sync with the moves of August 5, 2019, which saw the downgrading of J&K into a Union Territory and its bifurcation,” Mr. Parra said.
Till August 5, 2019, J&K was a State with a bicameral House in the Assembly. The J&K Reorganisation Act, however, does not have provisions for an Upper House in the Assembly of the UT.
‘Unforgivable ratification’
There is an attempt to push for a “move on narrative”, Mr. Parra alleged. “This J&K government is nothing but a ratification of August 5, 2019, legitimising what was imposed. The BJP couldn’t achieve public acceptance under President’s rule, but now secures its goal through an elected setup moulded in its framework. Ratification? Or just consolidation?” he added.
JKPC chief and legislator Mr. Lone seconded Mr. Parra’s criticism of the Business Rules. “The endorsement of the draft proposal prepared by the Assembly secretariat will be the most explicit and unforgivable ratification of August 5, 2019 changes. It will effectively end once and for all any scope for legal challenge to the August 5 changes in the future. While we dreamt of an unambiguous resolution by the new Assembly rejecting August 5, 2019, becoming a reference point in any future legal challenge, now we have a shocker,” Mr. Lone said.
‘No Kashmir Opposition MLAs’
The same Assembly is being used “to bury any such chances of legal challenges in the future”, he said. “The present Assembly, reflecting the will of the people of J&K, will now be remembered as the endorser, not the rejector of August 5, 2019,” he added.
Mr. Lone accused the NC-led government of deliberately constituting a committee with seven members of the ruling alliance, and two BJP members. “There was no one from the Kashmir-based Opposition parties or MLAs,” Mr. Lone said.
The committee includes legislators from different parties, including the NC’s Mubarak Gul, CPI(M)‘s M.Y. Tarigami, NC’s Saifullah Mir, Congress’ Nizam-ud-Din Bhat, BJP’s Pawan Kumar Gupta, NC’s Justice (Retd) Hasnain Masoodi, BJP leader R.S. Pathania, and Independent MLA Muzaffar Iqbal Khan.
Published – February 04, 2025 11:39 pm IST
