Jammu: A young Bharatiya Janata Party MP from J&K received rare praise from politicians on Saturday for her speech in Parliament, which was strictly limited to the highly polarizing budget issue in the House.Devyani Singh Rana, 31, is the daughter of former Nagrota MLA Devender Rana, who died after winning the assembly elections in 2024. In October 2025, the BJP fielded Devyani from Nagrota in the by-polls and she won. After his father’s death, Devyani joined the BJP and was appointed vice-president of J&K BJP Yuva Morcha in January 2025.While ruling National Conference lawmakers focus on J&K’s special status, the BJP has used the debate to highlight the alleged developmental gains after the abrogation of Article 370.However, members listened with rapt attention to her speech for about 12 minutes as Devyani raised the issue of power shortage and raised concerns about the union territory’s increasingly fragile climate, education sector and transport.In her speech, she opposed the Rs 271 Cr reduction in allocation to the Disaster Management, Relief and Rehabilitation Department, saying the drastic cut came in a year when unprecedented heavy rainfall devastated large parts of Jammu’s rural areas.Speaking about the tragedies in her constituency, she mentioned the death of 3-year-old Mahi in a landslide and the drowning of 28-year-old Sheer Khan in a river. “These names represent the lives lost in the Jammu division,” she said, calling for stronger flood and landslide management measures.Rana said regarding the flash floods that hit Jammu last year, people lost their lives, bridges were damaged, roads became unsafe and houses were destroyed. “Our children are stuck at home and in colleges. Apple trucks are stuck on the Jammu-Srinagar National Highway (NH-44) and our traders are suffering losses,” she said. She called for increased allocation for disaster management as Jammu and Kashmir was “prone to earthquakes, landslides and fires”.“Devyani also pointed to insufficient spending on the social sector. “If education spending is reduced by approximately 1.93 billion reais, how will children from poor families live,” she said.She also pointed out that power capital expenditure was reduced by Rs 782.8 billion, saying this was done at a time when voltage remained unstable and transformers were experiencing frequent failures.While the Ministry of Justice welcomed the initiative to provide free bus travel for disabled people, it raised questions about its effective implementation. “Are these buses equipped with adequate ramps and access mechanisms? What deterrent is there to ensure compliance when it is documented that buses cannot even park for women?” she asked.As she concluded her speech, members from the National Council, the Bharatiya Janata Party and the People’s Democratic Party pounded the table and came to her seat to congratulate her.Devyani holds a degree in economics from the University of California. The eldest of three siblings (two sisters and one brother), she is a businesswoman who took over the management of the family business after her father’s death. “I feel humbled and blessed by the response to my speech. We are all working for the common good,” Devyani told TOI.She said since the ongoing General Assembly session is a budget session, she prefers to focus solely on the budget to identify problem areas that can be addressed in the coming years. “I chose to speak in English because all quarterly budgets are presented and discussed in English,” she said.
