Excelsior Correspondent
NEW DELHI, Oct 13: NPP chairman and former minister Harshdev Singh today submitted a petition in the Rashtrapati Bhawan, Delhi seeking the intervention of the President of India for upholding democracy and constitutional guarantees in J&K state.
Alleging subversion of democracy in the State, Singh called for personal indulgence of the President of India so as to ensure free and fair elections to BDCs besides restoration of all democratic institutions including Legislative Assembly by ensuring reasonable political space to all opposition parties of J&K.
Mr Singh mentioned in his petition that being custodian of rights and civil liberties of the people of this great nation, it is apprised you about the extremely pathetic state of affairs in J&K which has been the victim of wicked politicking of successive regimes. While erstwhile regimes failed to deliver justice to the people, the incumbent rule has given the deadliest blow to the democratic institutions in the State. The people of J&K have been deprived of their democratic rights to have an elected Govt of their own by forcing proxy rule of the Centre for the last around 15 months. And there is no mention of holding Assembly elections despite the categoric ruling of the Supreme Court that elections needed to be held within a period of six months for all state legislatures where Assemblies were dissolved pre-maturely.
Several decisions have been taken by the executive by defying the set protocols and precedents. The elections to Legislative Assembly continue to be postponed so as to suit the political expediencies of the ruling party. And while the BDC elections have been announced, the opposition leaders were hardly taken into confidence. Majority of them are still under detentions. Majority of the opposition leaders of Jammu who were released from preventive detention on October 3 after captivity of 58 days, could not contact their party cadre, with the result they could not ensure participation of their parties in the said elections.
The political parties have been seeking release of all political leaders prior to the announcement of elections which however, did not find favour with an authoritarian regime which went ahead with the election process. There is widespread feeling in J&K that the State is heading towards one party system with the ruling BJP denying reasonable political space to the opposition parties. Amidst politics of coercion, intimidation, detentions and persecutions, the democracy in the State is on a ventilator desperately gasping for breath.
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