Despite throwing their fate with secular India, Kashmiris denied fruits of democracy
New Delhi: Jammu and Kashmir National Conference Member of Parliament from Anantnag Hasnain Masoodi has said that the state of J&K had “traditionally been meted out with injustice”.
Speaking in the parliament over the debate on the Jammu and Kashmir Reservation (Amendment Bill) 2019 on Friday, Masoodi said the democratic system and the state’s special status had been the “key causalities of this discrimination”.
Masoodi said the people of Jammu and Kashmir “despite throwing their fate with a secular India have been denied fruits of democracy”.
He said the special status that was assured to the state after Maharaja had signed conditional accession with the Union of India was “continuously infringed upon”.
“It started with the unconstitutional, illegal arrest of Sheikh Sahib, and the unrelenting and unprincipled infringement of the rights of the state which it had acquired through the 1952 Delhi agreement,” he said.
Referring to the reservation for the people living along the International border he said, “The party supports reservations for disadvantaged sections of the society, but the fall out of the bill will have its affect on the reservation in jobs that has already been given to people living along LOC”.
Masoodi said while the people living along the line of control were the “sole beneficiaries of the reservation so far, but now they would have to share their reservation quota with the people living along international border”. “The proposed reservation for the people living along IB is an extension of the reservation granted to People living along LOC, that means people living along IB and LOC will now have to share from the same pool of reservation. Now we would see more people competing for a specific number of reserved seats,” he said.
The 3% quota, he said, “will now comprise of the people living along IB and LOC. This, our party believes calls for a second look; which I implore should be left to the state legislature to decide upon.”
Masoodi said that the NC was not opposed to granting reservation to the people living along IB in J&K.
“We are of the view that the proposed measure should be left to the state legislature to decide upon.”
Masoodi said that the Supreme Court of India had already upheld that any decision on reservation should be an objective one based on thorough statistical account and broad based study.
“In this case the government is persistent on bringing out an amendment which is least objective and won’t prove much constructive towards filling the development gap in the border areas,” he said.
“The matter demands systematic study of statistics, demographics and topography, which unfortunately has got a back seat in this case. The measure is fraught with diverse ambiguities, therefore should principally be left to the state legislature to decide upon,” added the NC leader.
Masoodi also underscored the need of having an elected government in the state and said that having a prolonged governor’s rule and president’s rule from 1990-96 had not proved any effective towards improving the situation.
“It was only after a representative government led by Dr Farooq Abdullah came in, things started improving. Today we see a gulf between the government and the people of state increasing. To reverse this trend we ought to have a representative government in the state,” he said.
He questioned why the state was being “deliberately kept away from a democratic process”.
“Previously after the collapse of PDP-BJP government, we saw how a chance of having a viable government in the state was obstructed in contravention of rules and regulations. The clumsy and hasty decision of slashing governor’s rule in the state was followed by horse trading and other undemocratic activities,” Masoodi alleged.
Referring to Home minister’s statement over the conduct of peaceful parliament, ULB and Panchayat polls, he said, “I have heard the honourable members sitting in treasury benches boasting how no strike call was given on the visit of home minister to Kashmir. All this should act as an added reason for the government of India to go for Assembly elections without any delay”.
He asserted there was no reason, which necessitates extending the president’s rule by Six months under Art 356.
He said that the state governor and the home minister had asserted that the situation was better than what it used to be.
“If the situation is apt for ULB, Panchayat Polls, Parliament elections, why isn’t the situation apt for assembly elections. I request the present government to refrain from playing politics in a sensitive state like that of ours. The situation on the ground does not warrant for extension of President’s rule.”
KV News
