The Jammu and Kashmir assembly had been witnessing unruly scenes over the passage of a resolution demanding revocation of the special status.

BJP leader and Leader of Opposition Sunil Sharma said the party’s MLAs held a parallel assembly when the Speaker marshalled them out.

“We had a parallel assembly outside when the Speaker had our MLAs marshalled out. We raised the issues of our areas and the media covered it. The Speaker should not take this parallel assembly lightly,” he warned.

He said BJP MLAs can also run a parallel government.

“If your behaviour challenges Indian integrity and sovereignty, we will run a parallel government and this is my warning to them,” Sharma said.

Sharma said the way the Speaker has conducted the assembly is condemnable.

“We condemn it. This will be the darkest day in the history of the Jammu and Kashmir assembly. The Assembly was constituted by the people with the hope that their problems regarding water, electricity, hospitals and education would be solved.

“However, the Speaker has functioned as an agent of a particular party and performed an unconstitutional and illegal act in an undemocratic way,” Sharma said.

He said the separatist mindset of the ruling NC (National Conference) has lowered the dignity of the House by bringing the resolution.

“The unfortunate part is that the Speaker is saying the demand for special status is a demand for the restoration of Article 370. He is acting like a spokesman of the National Conference,” Sharma added.

He said Article 370 was removed by the highest temple of democracy in the country and it was settled by the Supreme Court.

“Article 370 is now history. They are comparing Article 370 with a word like special status which does not even exist in the Constitution. I challenge (chief minister) Omar Abdullah that if the word special status about Jammu and Kashmir is found anywhere in the Constitution, I will retire from politics,” he said.

In 2019, the BJP government revoked the special status of Jammu and Kashmir and divided the erstwhile state into two union territories.

PM Modi slams Congress, National Conference

Prime Minister Narendra Modi today slammed the Congress-National Conference alliance after the Jammu and Kashmir assembly passed a resolution demanding the restoration of Article 370, saying the action was part of a conspiracy against the union territory.

“As soon as Congress and the INDI alliance got the chance to form a government in Jammu and Kashmir, they started with their conspiracies against Kashmir… Two days ago, they passed a resolution in the J&K legislative assembly to restore Article 370,” PM Modi said in Maharashtra’s Dhule.