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| Demand in Jammu for delimitation commission well-founded | | Inadequate representation in Assembly | | Rustam
Jammu, May 6: The non-Congress, non-NC and the non-PDP parties in Jammu province have been urging the Government to constitute delimitation commission to redraw and delimit de novo the Assembly and Parliamentary constituencies as per the Jammu and Kashmir Representation of People's Act, 1957.
The demand cannot be dismissed as preposterous or as a manifestation of an anti-Kashmir bias. The demand is as justifiable as it is democratic and constitutional. The National Conference-Congress coalition Government in the State has scuttled the demand of these political parties, taking shelter under the anti-democratic constitutional bar on delimitation of Parliamentary and Assembly constituencies.
It has been saying that the February 2002 constitutional Amendment in the JKRPA allows delimitation of constituencies only after the 2031 census. This is a highly undemocratic stand. The JKRPA was amended by the National Conference, when it had a two-thirds majority in the Assembly, with 57 seats in the 87-member body. It needs to be underlined that the land area of Jammu province is 26,293 sqkm and that of Kashmir 15,953 sqkm but the population of the two regions is almost equal. Besides, much of Jammu province has treacherous terrain. It's mountainous roads makes the area rather inaccessible. In comparison, the road network and the means of communication in Kashmir valley are better.
The number of voters in Jammu province and Kashmir valley is 32 lakh and 35 lakh respectively. The difference is less than three lakh. But Jammu province sends 37 members to the Assembly at the rate of one legislator per 86,486.5 voters or one per 710 sqkm. In contrast, Kashmir sends 46 members to the Assembly at the rate of one legislator per 76,087 voters or one per 344 sqkm. The story of representation in the Lok Sabha is no different.
According to the 2002 voter list, there were 30,59,986 voters in Jammu province and 28,83,550 voters in Kashmir. Therefore, during the 2004 and 2009 general election, Jammu province sent only two members to the Lok Sabha at the rate of one per 15,29,993 voters while Kashmir elected three members at the rate of one per 9,61,183 voters - this is a huge difference of 5,68,810 voters per seat.
Even a superficial look at these figures is enough to reach three definite conclusions: First, the people of Jammu province have been denied proper representation in the lawmaking bodies which discuss and decide questions of supreme importance to the welfare of the people of the region.
Second, Kashmir elects three members to the Lok Sabha just for the reason that it has nearly three lakh more voters as compared to Jammu province. Third, Kashmir sends nine members more to the Assembly. In other words, for less than three lakh additional voters Kashmir returns nine members at the rate of one per 27,000 voters. The fact of the matter is that the Kashmiri-dominated political establishment in the State has throughout made unjust, insidious and humiliating distinctions between the people of Jammu province and Kashmir valley.
This has been happening since 1951, when the election to the Jammu and Kashmir Constituent-cum-Legislative Assembly was held. This exercise is now described even by the Kashmiri Muslims as an attempt by then Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru to ensure the electoral victory of Sheikh Abdullah and his Kashmir-based, and essentially sectarian party, the National Conference.
Recall that 73 out of 75 members belonging to the National Conference were elected unopposed in 1951 because the authorities, charged with conducting the first ever electoral exercise in the State, rejected wholesale the nomination papers of the non-National Conference candidates, including those belonging to the Praja Parishad which later merged with the Bharatiya Jana Sangh.
It will not be out of place to point out here that the people of Jammu have been demanding, since 1951, adequate representation in the State Assembly in accordance with the criteria laid down by the JKRPA which includes land area, population/voters, nature of terrain and accessibility.
Indeed, the demand of the people of Jammu deserves a positive consideration. They are not demanding something that is against Kashmir; they are simply urging the authorities in the State to implement the JKRPA in letter and spirit. |
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