NEW DELHI: The opposition mounted a full-throated attack on the Centre in Lok Sabha over the situation in
Jammu and Kashmir and termed the detention of National Conference leader Farooq Abdullah as illegal and demanded that the former CM be allowed to attend Parliament.
Opposition leaders raised the issue of MPs not being allowed to visit J&K after abrogation of its special status, whereas parliamentarians from Europe were taken to the state.
Congress leader
Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury said, “Our leader
Rahul Gandhi was not allowed to visit (J&K), several MPs were sent back... whereas ‘bhade ke tattu’ from Europe were being taken there.”
On Abdullah, he said the NC leader had been under detention for 106 days and it was his constitutional right to attend the House. Raising the issue during zero hour, he said it was an “atrocity” not to allow Abdullah to attend Lok Sabha proceedings.
DMK leader T R Baalu sought Speaker Om Birla's intervention, saying the speaker was the custodian of the House and should ensure that members were allowed to attend it. “What has happened with Farooq is illegal... You are the custodian of the House, you have to intervene,” he said, adding that the same was the case with PDP leader
Mehbooba Mufti and noted that her daughter had said that the former CM was manhandled.
Making a passionate appeal that Abdullah be allowed to attend the House, National Conference MP Hasnain Masoodi said the former CM was under preventive custody, not judicial custody, and it could be revoked by the speaker's order. “Farooq sahab represents
Srinagar and it is the right of the 20 lakh people of Srinagar that their voice be heard in the House. I have proof that he is not in judicial custody, he is in preventive custody. Your one order can revoke it,” Masoodi said while addressing the chair.
RSP leader N K Premachandran said, “Farooq Abdullah is not in the House. The House is not in order. I am not in a position to ask any question.”
Similar sentiments on Abdullah's arrest were made by Trinamool Congress leaders as well.
Earlier, within minutes of commencement of question hour, around 30 members from Congress trooped into the well, shouting slogans and demanding that the government stop attacking the opposition and foisting false cases on them.
The speaker said when home minister
Amit Shah informed the House in the previous session that Abdullah was not under detention, he was correct. The written information of his detention was received later by the Lok Sabha secretariat. He said now he had written information that Abdullah was under detention.