Srinagar, Mar 31 (JKNS): A stormy session of the Jammu and Kashmir Legislative Assembly witnessed Peoples Conference President and MLA Handwara Sajad Lone deliver a blistering intervention, calling out what he described as selective outrage and institutional inconsistency on the question of security.
Opening with a direct address to the Chair, as per news agency JKNS, Lone remarked, “Sir, when we talk about the PSA or police verification, you say this House does not have the power… so why are you allowing them to talk so much on security?”.
He exposed the contradiction between restricting debate on core legal instruments while permitting prolonged political theatre on security arrangements.
Despite repeated interruptions, he pressed on, asserting that those who deny the Assembly’s jurisdiction cannot simultaneously exploit it for optics. Drawing from personal experience, Lone said, “I have the highest level of security, yet I don’t even have a house guard at my home… but the way they are projecting it is misleading.”
In a sharp escalation, he invoked the National Conference’s record in office, declaring, “During your time, thousands of people were killed because security was not provided… this is a reality.”
He further disclosed, “They did not even provide me security to go to the graveyard for the burial of my father” — underlining his assertion that many, including himself, have long been on the receiving end of the very neglect now being lamented.
Targeting what he characterised as entitlement politics, Lone said, “Their office security was withdrawn, and they didn’t make noise then… this attempt to become martyrs, cut it out.” He advised aggrieved members to raise their concerns with the Union Home Ministry rather than disrupt the proceedings of the House.
The exchange grew more confrontational as he called out perceived hypocrisy, saying, “You are living in a Cabinet Minister’s house and come here to lecture others… if you have self-respect, leave that house.”
Concluding amid persistent commotion, Lone issued a pointed warning against reckless rhetoric: “When you call others the ‘B team of BJP’, doesn’t it cross your mind someone might kill them? Security is not just about this…”
He repeatedly urged the House to allow him to speak, framing the intervention as a necessary pushback against the politicisation of security and what he called the manufacturing of selective victimhood. (JKNS)