Mahesh Chander Sudan
We, the people of Jammu and Kashmir, witnessed an impressive celebration of 71st anniversary of Indian Republic held across the length and breadth of Indian Union. It is indeed a matter of pride for citizens of India to celebrate the day when we adopted our own constitution for achieving peace and prosperity for each and every member of the Indian Union without any discrimination. It indeed allowed us to set our own national targets to establish our place in the comity of Independent Nations that suffered a long drawn rule of English Empire and started her journey afresh. However, the state of Jammu and Kashmir remained a bone of contention between two neighboring nations who could not arrive a peaceful amicable understanding even after seven decades and this undecided status hurt the interest of the poor people who have been suffering a continuous deep rooted uncertainty of life despite having honored the unilateral decision of their Maharaja and pinned their hope in the instrument of accession signed between Indian Union and their Ruler. A long drawn animosity prevails even today at the cost of many precious lives of soldiers of both the countries. It is no doubt that the ongoing security environment compelled Union Government to act boldly and amend legislative provisions to exercise effective control, and dispense justice and equality amongst all sections of the society across theological and social minorities. However, unprecedented division of erstwhile State of JK into two Union Territories appears unilateral decision of the central dispensation.
As it stands now that we are to accept the status granted to us in the Indian Union as fait accompli but it does not devoid us from our constitutional right to have our own elected government for welfare of the people at large. Holding election across India is the constitutional duty of Election Commission of India as per Article 324 of the Indian Constitution. The concept of democracy as visualized by the constitution pre-supposes the representation of the people in Parliament and State Legislatures through elections. Hence, delay in holding elections for unjustified period not only suspends the constitutional right of the electorates but it works against the spirit of highest law of land namely Constitution of India. Conversion of the erstwhile State of JK into two UTs demands redrawing of the boundaries of Parliamentary and Assembly constituencies to make sure there are as nearly as practicable the same number of people in each constituency. It is, therefore, incumbent on the part of Union Government to order delimitation of constituencies to enable holding of elections in the newly formed UT without incurring any further delay. We the people of JK have been denied of our elected government since June 19, 2018 due to political crisis emerging out of withdrawal of support by BJP to PDP and subsequent dissolving of legislature by the then governor of J&K paving way for holding fresh possible elections within a period of six months. Implementation of recently enacted Jammu and Kashmir Reorganization Act 2019 entails further delay leaving entire administration of the UT with LG and his team of advisors. It is really difficult for ordinary people of the UT to understand as to who shall stand responsible for the development, that brought associated sufferings for students, patients, farmers, laborers, poor people and unemployed youths who earned ineligibility on account of age due to failure of government.
It is really unfortunate that the process of delimitation is being delayed by the ruling dispensation of Indian Union merely to fulfill their political agenda rather than mitigating sufferings of the poor people of Jammu and Kashmir. We the people of JK are yet to accept and understand the implications resulting out of division of erstwhile state when it was under a temporary arrangement of President’s Rule thereby raising concern of democratic propriety. It is ironic that we are left to live in the largest democracy of the world without having exercised our constitutional mandate to form our own Government. Justice delayed is justice denied. No amount of arguments are found sufficient to justify the avoidable delay in holding mandatory delimitation of constituencies so that elections for Legislative Assembly are held at the earliest possible time without furthering political agenda of the ruling party. It is an earnest and sincere urge of the people of Jammu and Kashmir that they may be allowed to exercise their constitutional right to elect their representatives to achieve interactive democratic governance in place of temporary alternate in the form of Lieutenant Governor and his team of advisors. Jai Hind, Jai Bharat.
(The author is WgCdr (Retd)
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