BJP leaders’ viral telephonic conversation has spilled the bean.
Jammu| Reacting to the telephonic conversation between BJP leaders doing rounds on the social media, Harsh Dev Singh Chairman-JKNPP and former Minister said that JKNPP’s allegations of BJP govt influencing the Delimitation Commission in preparing the draft report have been vindicated.
In the audio-recording which has gone viral, the State President is unambiguously making a statement and assuring a BJP leader that he has included a favourable belt of Ramban constituency in the latter’s constituency and that there is no reason to worry.
“I have annexed the Assar belt in your constituency. All those voters are yours”, Mr. Ravinder Raina is heard assuring the BJP leader Shakti Parihar. It is dumbfounding to note that the BJP State President is claiming to have himself made the modifications in the draft Delimitation report rather than getting it done through the Delimitation Commission.
What a mockery. The statement amply demonstrates that the report is being finalized in the office of BJP as had been stated by the NPP leadership earlier as well. The draft report submitted by the Commission to the Associate members is therefore motivated, biased, defective and anomalous.
The suggestions given by the opposition parties and civil society during their interaction with the Commission have been blatantly ignored and the said report seemed to have been prepared keeping the political expediency of the Saffron party in consideration, said Harsh.
He was addressing a press conference in Jammu today.
Speaking on the occasion, Harsh Dev Singh accused the Delimitation Commission of having ignored the ground situation and prepared the draft as per the dictations of the ruling party. “The constituencies have been created casually in a haphazard manner by defying the prescribed parameters governing the process of Delimitation. The Assembly seats have been created and redrawn in conformity with the dictates of the BJP govt thereby overlooking the convenience of the general masses. The result was massive disenchantment and resentment brewing amongst the public particularly in the rural and remote areas. “People’s aspirations have been thrown to the winds. 47 seats have been allocated for Kashmir against 43 for Jammu region. Not only that, several areas of Jammu region which had remained reserved for 27 years, since the last delimitation exercise of 1995, were again included in reserved constituencies thereby defeating the very objective behind rotation of seats at the time of every fresh delimitation. Moreover, several weird constituencies have been carved with gross irregularities in their territorial structure lacking justification, rationale and meaning”, stated Mr. Singh. He rued that the viral conservation between BJP’s State President and its Ex-Minister on social media had said it all. It has let the cat out of the bag, lampooned Harsh.
Pointing towards the rising public unrest, Mr. Singh said the fundamental basis of terrain, topography, facilities of communication and public convenience which ought to have been accorded primordial consideration were conventionally ignored. “The imbalance in Parliament was allowed to continue with a portion of Jammu region having been annexed with Anantnag Parliament seat of Kashmir. The inclusion of Rajouri and Poonch districts of Jammu region in Anantnag constituency has been the most obnoxious and intriguing aspect of the delimitation exercise. It was a draconian attempt to break J&K on communal lines in conformity with the recommendations made in the nasty Dixon plan. While the BJP govt had assured parity in Parliamentary seats for Jammu and Kashmir regions, it ended up in a sabotage with secular Jammu region having been vertically divided on communal lines to sub serve the religion-political agenda of the secessionist forces”, said Singh. He called upon the Delimitation Commission to withhold its sanctity and review its draft report to remove all the defects and anomalies which were anti-people, arbitrary and based on communal lines. “Restoration of democracy in J&K with robust public representation is the need of the hour. Any attempt to quell aspirations and wishes of the masses will have volcanic repercussions”, Harsh cautioned.
Mr. Masood Andrabi (Vice President-JKNPP), Mr. Maqbool Malik (General Secretary-JKNPP), Mr. Parshotam Parihar (State Secretary-JKNPP) and Mr. Surinder Chouhan (District President Jammu Rural of JKNPP) were also present in the press conference.