J&K Assembly (File photo)
NEW DELHI: The first day of the autumn session of the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly saw sharp exchanges between the National Conference (NC) and the BJP over the role of former governor Satya Pal Malik in the 2019 abrogation of Article 370, during obituary references to him.Malik, who passed away in August, was called “controversial” by NC MLA Bashir Veeri, prompting BJP’s Sham Lal Sharma to demand that his remarks be removed. Speaker Abdul Rahim Rather advised restraint but refused to delete Veeri’s comments.PDP MLA Rafiq Naik urged members not to speak ill of the dead. However, CPI(M) leader M Y Tarigami said paying tribute should not stop members from learning lessons from a leader’s actions. Defending Malik, BJP MLA Vikram Randhawa called August 5, the day Article 370 was scrapped and coincidentally the day Malik died this year, a “historic day,” which drew protests from NC members. Deputy chief minister Surinder Choudhary suggested that officials serving in J-K should record their experiences before leaving the state.Omar Abdullah added that everyone makes mistakes and that the best tribute to those who have passed away would be to focus on public work rather than lengthy tributes. He proposed that, like in parliament, only the speaker should read obituary references to save time.The session ended with a two-minute silence for the deceased, including former ministers and legislators, before the house was adjourned till Monday.Satya Pal Malik served as the last Governor of Jammu and Kashmir from August 2018 to October 2019. It was during his tenure that the abrogation of Article 370 took place on August 5, 2019, marking a historic and controversial decision that led to the bifurcation of the erstwhile state into two Union Territories: Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh.Following his stint in J&K, he was also appointed as the Governor of Bihar and Meghalaya.