BUNTY MAHAJAN
JAMMU, DECEMBER 21: Leaders of the People’s Alliance for Gupkar Declaration (PAGD) who met here on Tuesday under leadership of National Conference president Dr Farooq Abdullah, announced to hold a peaceful demonstration in Srinagar on January 1 in protest against these proposals “which in our views will further divide the ranks of peple of Jammu and Kashmir, deepen their alienation and create a much bigger void between communities and the regions’’.
Describing the Delimitation Commission’s draft proposals as detrimental to the interests of the people of Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh, as also the interests of the country, PAGD spokesperson and CPI(M) leader M Y Tarigami after the conclusion of their meeting at Farooq Abdullah’s residence here, said “all of us here have decided that while we want peace and we do not want confrontation with any institution and the government under any circumstances, we will continue to raise our voice in a peaceful manner in every forum in defence of the legitimate rights of the people’’.
The meeting was attended among others by PDP president and former Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti, Awami National Conference president Muzaffar Shah, National Conference MP Hasnain Masoodi.
Pointing out that the Central government should have waited in the matter as many of the PAGD constituents have challenged the Re-organisation Act and the abrogation of Article 370 in the Supreme Court, Tarigami said that taking hasty decisions was neither in the interest of the nation nor the people of Jammu and Kashmir. The PAGD was of the view that the census figures which could form the basis for carving out of assembly constituencies has been ignored, he added.
He regretted that while BJP government on one hand was talking of bringing uniform system in the entire country, it was on the other hand doing things in isolation in Jammu and Kashmir which was detrimental to the communal harmony and wishes of the people here. “We wanted the government to have census and thereafter delimitation in Jammu and Kashmir along with rest of the country,’’ he said.
Asking the government as to why it is in a hurry to get delimitation done in Jammu and Kashmir, the PAGD spokesperson asked whether the constitutional and legal provisions were not applicable to the Union Territory. “Whether everything here has been put in abeyance,’’ he asked the entire country, its leaders and the civil society.
However, if the delimitation has to be done, the 2011 census show the figures. “We don’t ask for anything except that there shall be some norm to increase the seats keeping in view the population figures,’’ he added.
He said that the National Conference MPs, Farooq Abdullah and Hasnain Masoodi had told the Delimitation Commission at its Monday meeting in Delhi that the draft proposals were not in accordance with the wishes of the people, but a step to increase the wedge at regional and sub-regional level, besides increasing the already existing suspicion among communities. These straightway further the BJP agenda to divide people, which it has been following elsewhere the country, he added.
Hasnain Masoodi on the occasion said that based on documents and figures, the National Conference will present before Delimitation Commission its objections to the draft proposal.
