KL Report
Srinagar
Irked the remarks of senior Congress Minster, Sham Lal Sharma, against Speaker of the state Assembly, Mubark Gul, the ruling coalition partner National Conference (NC) may take the issue to coordination committee and seek an assurance from its coalition partner that such incidents do not occur in future.
“Such things do happen in the Assembly, but it was unfortunate that a senior minster was involved and that too the remarks were passed against the Speaker”, a senior leader of NC told KNS. He however was confident that the verbal brawl would not affect the coalition in any way.
While state Congress Chief Prof Saifuddin Soz distanced himself from the incident, senior Minster Taj Mohiuddin termed it as ‘unfortunate’ and said that members of both the parties shouldn’t have indulged in the verbal duel. “This is a gross indiscipline and should not have happened”, Taj told KNS, while clarifying that he was talking in his personnel capacity.
“In my personal opinion, we have nothing to do with making and breaking of coalitions. It is the high command in our party that has the authority. We can’t threaten anybody of pulling out” said Taj, who refused to comment whether there could be any disciplinary action against Sham Lal Sharma.
Earlier State Congress President Prof Saifuddin Soz refused to comment on the incident, saying that it had happened in the assembly and he was not in a position to comment on the issue. “This has happened on the floor of the house, I cannot comment on it”, Soz told KNS on Wednesday.
Though none of its ministers was ready to speak against Sham, publically, NC is believed to be contemplating to take up the issue in the coalition coordination committee to convey its displeasure to the Congress leadership.
Sources in the party told KNS that they were taken by surprise by the comments of Sham Lal Sharma. “We did not expect such remarks against speaker from a senior congress minster, and this has definitely disheartened us”, a senior NC leader, who asked not to be named, told KNS.
However the senior Minister Ali Mohammad Sagar preferred to downplay the incident, saying such things won’t harm the coalition. He refused to comment on whether NC was mulling to convey its displeasure to the congress high command. “I think, speaker is the custodian of the house and it is his discretion to allow or disallow any member to speak. We should respect the sanctity of the chair”, Sagar told KNS. He, however, was quick to add that the incident was not going to affect the functioning of the coalition.
