news details |
|
|
| Jammu and Ladakh also have a say | | Kashmir crisis | | Early Times Report
JAMMU, Sept 8: The Kashmir-based parties like the PDP and the NC are exerting pressure on New Delhi to extract an assurance from it that nothing would be done to dilute those provisions of the Indian Constitution which accord "special treatment" to the state under any pretext whatsoever. They have been warning New Delhi that it must not use judicial and executive routes and Parliament to weaken those provisions failing which there would unrest in Kashmir of an unprecedented nature.
Both these parties whose support-base is essentially limited to 40x80 Kashmir Valley and where they have become almost irrelevant are seeking to establish that they represent the general will of the people of the entire state and it is incumbent upon New Delhi to respect what they say and do so that peace and order in the Valley is not disturbed. And they want New Delhi to reassure them before the process to elect new panchayats and urban local bodies is set-in-motion in right earnest that it would not do anything whatever to "disturb the status quo" or "amend the Indian Constitution through legislative, executive and judicial routes".
Are the NC and the PDP the sole determinants? Have the people of Jammu and Ladakh, who occupy 89 per cent of the state's land area and constitute half of the state population, no right and no say? The people of Jammu and Ladakh must have an equal say at all levels and in all spheres and their opinion must be given a due consideration. In Jammu and Ladakh, not one political leader has opposed the government's move to hold civic bodies' elections. In fact, the BJP, the Congress, the Panthers Party and other smaller groups have welcomed the decision and even started campaign to woo the voters in their own way and style.
Any move to delay civic bodies' elections at the behest of the NC and the PDP would further alienate Jammu and Ladakh from Kashmir and further widen the gulf between the regions and the communities. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
| |
|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
