National Conference (NC) president Dr. Farooq Abdullah, also head of the regional parties’ amalgam Peoples Alliance for Gupkar Declaration (PAGD), on Saturday criticised the J&K Delimitation Commission’s draft proposal and termed it “a planned strategy to favour the BJP (Bharatiya Janata Party) and its designs for J&K”.
“The panel has worked in favour of the BJP. I foresee that the larger plan is to get a resolution passed in favour of [reading down of] Article 370 in the J&K assembly. Then the BJP will take the case to the court and claim a victory,” Dr. Abdullah said, after a meeting of the constituents of the Gupkar alliance at his residence in Srinagar.
He said the panel’s draft had increased the sense of alienation in J&K. “The panel’s recommendations are biased. The seats have been increased in a way to benefit the BJP and to help the party sail through the elections,” Dr. Abdullah said.
On the possibility of the Gupkar alliance contesting Assembly elections jointly, Dr. Abdullah said, “It was too premature to comment on this issue at this juncture. Let the elections be announced, many people will join us to fight the polls.”
The alliance presented a white paper on development, investment and jobs in J&K. “The BJP’s claims post reading down of Article 370 on development, peace, jobs and investments are nothing but a bunch of lies. Where are the jobs?” Gupkar alliance spokesperson and Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) leader M.Y. Tarigami said. He also described the panel’s proposals as “unconstitutional” and “illegal.”
“The August 5, 2019 decision was unconstitutional. The historic State of J&K was sliced into two halves. It was nothing but a humiliation for every single citizen of Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh. The delimitation exercise is being done under the J&K Reorganisation Act, which itself is unconstitutional,” Mr. Tarigami said.
He also questioned the panel’s proposal to grant six additional seats to the Jammu region and one to the Kashmir region. Mr. Tarigami urged India’s civil society to listen to the woes of the people in J&K. “We will invite all Members of Parliament for a discussion and will also send copies [of the white paper] to the President of India,” he said.
The Gupkar alliance was formed in 2019 by five regional parties, including Dr. Abdullah’s NC and Mehbooba Mufti’s Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), to fight for the restoration of the pre-August 5, 2019 position of J&K. In 2019, the Centre hollowed out Article 370, which granted J&K its special constitutional position, and split the erstwhile State into the two Union Territories of J&K and Ladakh.
