The newly elected Jammu and Kashmir Assembly was marred by ruckus on first day after opposition MLA Wahid Parra of the People’s Democratic Party moved a resolution against the scrapping of Article 370.
The erstwhile state lost special status, and was bifurcated into two union territories, after the Narendra Modi-led Union government abrogated Article 370 in August 2019.
Soon after Parra, 36 started reading form the resolution, BJP’s lawmakers in the Assembly registered opposition. The speaker adjourned the house amid choas to meet again for L-G Manoj Sinha’s address.
Jammu and Kashmir assembly convened here for its first session in six years on Monday, November 4. The conclude on November 8. Besides the L-G address, obituary references for former legislators who passed away since the last session of the erstwhile J&K Assembly are also scheduled to be taken up,
The Contentious Resolution
The Speaker of the House, Rahim Rather of the ruling National Conference, however, said he had not admitted any resolution as yet.
“This house opposes the revocation of special status of J&K and constitutional disempowerment of Jammu and Kashmir through the J&K reorganisation Act, 2-19 and calls for its complete rescinding,” reads the resolution.
“House further resolves to strive for the restoration of special status and all constitutional guarantees granted to Jammu and Kashmir in their original prisitine form,” it read.
Who is Waveed Parra?
PDP president Mehbooba Mufti congratulated Parra for moving the resolution. “Proud of Waheed Parra for introducing resolution in JK Assembly opposing the revocation of Article 370 and resolve to restore the special status.God bless you,” she said in a post on X.
Parra, the MLA from Pulwama, had lost the Lok Sabha Election 2024 from Srinagar parliamentary seat. President of PDP’s youth with, Parra was nominated as a Peace Fellow at the Yale International Leadership Centre in 2023 but was denied a passport.
Parra was arrested in a militancy-related case by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) three days after he filed his nomination for the DDC election from a Pulwama constituency in November, 2020. He won the election from jail.
He was granted bail by on January 9, 2021 but was again arrested outside the prison by Counter Intelligence Kashmir, a special cell of the J&K Police for allegedly having links with militants and separatists’. He was finally released on bail in June 2023.
