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| Rejected by people, rewarded by Govt | | Upper House turned into rehabilitation centre for defeated candidates | |
Early Times Report
JAMMU, Mar 27: Advocates of the 33% reservation for women in legislative bodies have one the one side closed all doors for women, representatives of economically weaker sections, intellectuals and the high-profile men in education and other social services but at the same time created the dubious precedent of accommodating as many as 11 of the defeated candidates in the Legislative Council in Jammu & Kashmir. In a few days from now, exactly 33% of the seats in the ‘House of Elders’ will be occupied by those politicians of different political parties who have been rejected by people of the state in the recent Assembly elections---if the Government succeeds in hoodwinking Governor N N Vohra, who has been a career bureaucrat for decades.
According to political sources, quite a number of the defeated candidates of his party had started building up pressure on the J&K Pradesh Congress Committee chief, Prof Saifuddin Soz, seeking “rehabilitation” in the Legislative Council (LC) immediately after formation of the coalition government and announcement of the elections for the Upper House. However, Prof Soz as well as AICC General Secretary incharge J&K Prithvi Raj Chauhan made it clear to these aspirants that, as per a rule, none of the defeated candidates could be considered for any coveted position for minimum of two years in the country. They explained that there was no policy of rewarding defeated candidates in the party.
While a defeated candidate of the party, Gulchain Singh Charak, reached the end of his term earlier this month, Abdul Gani Vakil happens to be the only member of Congress party who shall continue to occupy a seat in the LC inspite of his losing the recent elections in Rafiabad. B R Kundal and Jehangir Mir (who were elected as MLCs in March 7th polling), Ghulam Nabi Monga (who lost due to tie with NC’s Vijay Bakaya) as well as Ravinder Sharma, Subhash Gupta and Bashir Magray (who have been recommended for nomination in the Congress quota) had all left the place vacant in the Assembly elections for their AICC-nominated colleagues. Some of them, like Ravinder Sharma in Nowshera, had surrendered inspite of having better prospects than those chosen by the party.
Amrit Malhotra is the only outgoing MLC who is being favoured by Congress for yet another term in the LC.
On the other hand, Congress party’s leading partner in the coalition government, National Conference (NC) has not only filled its quota of the elected seats with its defeated candidates but has also removed former Chief Secretary Sheikh Ghulam Rasool from the list of its nomination quota. Sheikh was the only individual in the list who had not lost the Assembly election. He has been finally replaced by the defeated candidate Ghulam Qadir Pardesi, who, in bribe, had been promised a berth in the LC on account of his 3rd entry into Dr Abdullah’s party in the last 20 years.
According to sources, NC has now recommended Pardesi (defeated in Sonwar), Mirza Mehboob Beig (defeated in Anantnag), Ajay Sadhotra (defeated in March) and Javed Rana (defeated in Mendhar) for nomination against the four seats actually reserved for “economically backward classes” and “persons having special knowledge or practical experience in respect of matters such as literature, science, art, cooperative movement and social services”. Pardesi’s “art” and “social service” includes rigging of the 1987 Assembly elections (as District Election Officer Srinagar) that created unending militancy. The number of soldiers and civilians killed in the 20-year-long militancy is said to be more than those killed in any of the three Indo-Pakistan wars in 1947, 1965 and 1971.
This selection of nominees has obviously come as a great embarrassment for Minister incharge Law & Parliamentary Affairs, Abdul Rahim Rather, who had firmly declared on the floor of the House in Assembly on March 6th that section 50 (6) of the J&K Constitution would be implemented by his Government “in letter and spirit”. “We have just learned that Sadhotra and Rana are the letters while Mehboob and Pardesi are the spirit!” a senior NC leader remarked with satire. He said that his party was on “high moral pedestal” and Chief Minister Omar Abdullah was just building up his image of “no- nonsense leader” but the reality of multiple power centers in the NC could shatter all of it.
“If Governor goes by the real letter and spirit of the Constitution and his own wisdom and conscience, it could become an embarrassment for the whole coalition government”, said the NC stalwart and recollected that none other than his party leadership had raised an outcry when Mufti Mohammad Sayeed had pushed ineligible men like Mohammad Sultan Panditpuri and Rafi Ahmed Mir “through the backdoor” into the Upper House.
Earlier in the March 7th election for 9 seats in the LC, NC had the dubious distinction of rewarding four more of its defeated candidates with rehabilitation in the LC. Former Chief Secretary Vijay Bakaya was the only NC nominee who had not the tag of being a defeated candidate. All the other NC nominees were the politicians rejected by people at the hustings. They included Ajatshatru Singh (defeated in Nagrota), Khalid Najeeb Suharwardi (defeated in Doda), Altaf Ahmed Kaloo (defeated in Pahalgam) and Showkat Hussain Ganai (defeated in Wachi).
With this, NC has achieved the distinction of having the highest number of defeated candidates in the House of Elders. While 8 of them belong to NC, one each belongs to PDP (Asgar Ali), Panthers Party (Rafeeq Ahmed Shah) and Congress (Abdul Gani Vakil). While Asgar is a defeated candidate from Kishtwar, Rafeeq Shah had been defeated in Kupwara and the already sitting MLC, Abdul Gani Vakil, in Rafiabad.
Indispensable Elders
1. Ajatshatru Singh NC Defeated in Nagrota
2. Khalid Najeeb Suharwardi NC Defeated in Doda
3. Altaf Ahmed Kaloo NC Defeated in Pahalgam
4. Showkat Hussain Ganai NC Defeated in Wachi
5. G Q Pardesi NC Defeated in Sonwar
6. Mirza Mehboob Beg NC Defeated in Anantnag
7. Ajay Sadhotra NC Defeated in Marh
8. Javed Ahmed Rana NC Defeated in Mendhar
9. Asgar Ali PDP Defeated in Kishtwar
10. Rafeeq Shah NPP Defeated in Kupwara
11. Abdul Gani Vakil Cong Defeated in Rafiabad
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