Centre, ECI maintaining deliberate suspense over J&K polls: Harsh

By
Daily Excelsior
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Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Aug 1: Former minister and senior AAP leader Harsh Dev Singh today said that the conduct of Assembly elections in Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh by the end of this year is a known fact and repeatedly highlighted in the media and elsewhere, but the restoration of democracy in J&K continues to remain mired in uncertainty.
Pointing towards the flip-flop of BJP leaders over the issue of holding elections in J&K, Singh said that contradictory and conflicting statements were being made by different Central leaders and ministers on different occasions with regard to the timing of the said elections. Only recently, the Union Home Ministry had made a statement in the ongoing session of Parliament that the conduct of elections in J&K and its timing would be decided by the ECI, it being the prerogative of the said Commission.
But the Union Defence Minister, Raj Nath Singh had given repeated indications and statements of holding elections in J&K by the end of the current year. There are further reports in the media of likely delays in the finalization of electoral rolls by the Election Authorities thereby negating the possibility of such polls in the current year. It is also being suggested by certain quarters that the BJP Govt is not inclined to hand over power to elected representatives in J&K in a bid to continue its proxy rule in the UT. And while ECI continues maintaining silence over the issue with vague statements of the security situation being described as the determining factor, the fate of democracy in J&K continues to hang in balance, Singh asserted.
Demanding early installation of popular Govt in J&K, Singh said that continuance of BJP’s proxy rule in J&K for the last four years was undemocratic and amounted to subversion of constitutional guarantees to the people of the UT. He urged upon the ECI to assert itself in the wake of an authoritarian regime trying to suppress democracy and to announce the much delayed Assembly elections in J&K at the earliest.

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