Jammu: J&K Pradesh Congress Committee (JKPCC) President Ghulam Ahmad Mir and Working President Raman Bhalla Thursday said that the Delimitation Commission’s draft proposals were aimed at dividing the people of Kashmir and Jammu and thus delaying assembly elections.
Addressing a gathering during their membership drive at Udhampur, Mir described the Delimitation Commission draft as “bizarre” and said his party would not allow any attempt to divide the people of J&K.
He termed the proposals as “mockery of the universally-accepted and constitutionally-established norms of people’s representation”.
Mir expressed concern over the “repeated attempts of disempowering the people of J&K with atrocious measures one after the other”.
“First, the state was bifurcated and its status degraded as a union territory and thereafter the exercise for the delimitation was undertaken despite strong pleas of putting it on hold keeping in view the legal challenge in the apex court of the country against the decisions taken post-August 5, 2019,” he said.
“However, the Centre continued with its agenda to disempower J&K,” Mir said. “The Congress is framing up a detailed response to the draft which is patently against the constitutional morality, propriety, and values.”
“The Centre wants maps of assembly constituencies to be redrawn in such a way that benefits the ruling party the most politically,” he said. “The whole process of conducting assembly elections is being subjected to undue politicking which unfortunately is taking its toll on the development of the state.”
Mir said that having an elected government was the unassailable right of the people in a thriving democracy.
“However, here the right to make a choice is being denied to the people,” he said.
Speaking on the occasion, Bhalla said that the government was buying time with futile programmes and accused the Bharatiya Janata Party of weakening the grass-root democracy after it’s failure to fulfill the promises made to the people.