NC, Congress a divided house, BJP makes up for 'Opposition'

LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL

JAMMU: The synergy between Opposition National Conference and Congress along with four firebrand Independent Legislators has been making the life for the Members on Treasury benches difficult but in the House of Elders the disconnect is so profound that it is often one or the other ruling party which makes up for the Opposition -this despite the fact that numerical difference between Treasury and Opposition is not very wide in the Legislative Council.
A remarkable incident from last week explain the Opposition disconnect in the Legislative Council: It was lack of coordination between National Conference and Congress in the Legislative Council that led to defeat of NC Member Shehnaz Ganai's Private Member Bill with one vote on Friday. Presence of two Congress members in the house at that time could have forced government to adopt the private member bill.
NC MLC Shehnaz Ganai had introduced a bill to prohibit indecent representation of women through advertisement or in publications, writings, paintings, and figures or in any other manner and for the matter connected therewith or incidental there to. In the absence of opposition in the Legislative Council as NC-Congress staged walkout from the house on the issue of Solar lights, two Private Members Bills of Rani Gargi Blowria and Naresh Gupta were not taken up. Meanwhile Shehnaz Ganai moved her Bill and discussion followed.
Replying to discussion, Minister for Agriculture, Ghulam Nabi Hanjura reiterated that government is committed for safety of women in state and figures given are not right as crime against women in J&K is low as compared to the national level. There are adequate laws for security and safety of women in state and requested Shehnaz Ganai to withdraw her private member bill.
Ganai pressed for voting on the Bill which was defeated with one vote. Shehnaz got 10 votes while 11 votes were against the Bill. Her Bill could have sailed through if two Congress MLCs Naresh Gupta and Jugal Kishore were present in the house. Ganai termed it unfortunate that private members bills usually not accepted by the government.
On the contrary, the BJP has been playing the role of an aggressive Opposition in the Upper House: Last week, BJP's Ramesh Arora put the government to embarrassment when he highlighted the absence of senior ministers in the House and questioned the seriousness of the government.
Taking cognizance of the matter, the Chair adjourned the proceedings of the Council for five minutes as no senior minister was present in the House.
During zero hour in Legislative Council, only MoS Ajay Nanda was present in the House and no Cabinet minister was there. Arora said, "Minister of State is no government".