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| Kashmir domination with state | | 4 of 5 ministers from Valley | | Early Times Report
JAMMU, June 7: Kashmir's domination within the state is an old phenomenon. Jammu & Kashmir-watchers say it is "more marked". For example, when the first-ever cabinet was formed after the state's Constituent Assembly was elected in 1951, four of the five ministers were from the valley. They included Sheikh Abdullah, wazir-e-azam, Bakshi Gulam Mohammad, Mirza Afzal Beg and Sham Lal Saraf.
The Jammu-based Praja Parishad, consistently opposed the Kashmir's domination within the state. The Bharatiya Jana Sangh, which was formed by Syama Prasad Mookerjee in 1952, also fought against the valley's domination and pitched for the complete integration of the state into India. Its chief slogan was: 'Ek nishan, ek vidhan, ek pradhan' (one flag, one constitution, one prime minister).
It is also pertinent to mention that the last time constituencies were delimited de novo in the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly was in 1995. The Justice KK Gupta commission had initially decided that the Kashmir valley should have 44 seats, the Jammu province 39 seats, and the Ladakh region four, but it was not to be for reasons not really difficult to fathom. The most notable being the opposition in Kashmir and New Delhi's appeasement policy. Had the commission held the ground firmly, its initial decision would have radically altered the regional imbalance within the state - between the Valley, the Jammu provincen and Ladakh region. It would have meant 43 seats for Jammu and Ladakh and 44 for Kashmir. The previous delimitation commission had earmarked 42 seats for Kashmir, 32 for Jammu province and two seats for Ladakh.
Ever since then, politically awakened Jammu-based activists have been irate over this. They have been terming the excessive representation to the valley "as a ploy to retain Kashmir's political predominance within the state".
It's only natural that the reported move of the union government to delimit the assembly constituencies has electrified the political scene in Jammu and Ladakh and upset almost leaders in the valley. |
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