news details |
|
|
| Concerted move towards separation, onslaught on Indian Constitution | | State Election Commission - I | | RUSTAM
ET REPORT
JAMMU, Dec 11: The Congress has again bungled and walked into the dangerous trap laid down by those who are systematically widening the gulf between Jammu and Kashmir and the rest of the country. The most disturbing aspect of the whole situation is that the National Conference, which is ruling the state with the help of the Congress, is doing certain things designed to weaken the constitutional and political bonds between the state and New Delhi the National Conference couldn't do when it commanded absolute, or even two-third, majority in the legislature.
Yesterday, the National Conference-Congress coalition government cleared decks for the establishment of separate election commission in Jammu and Kashmir. In fact, "the State Cabinet which met here (in Jammu)…under the chairmanship of the Chief Minister, Omar Abdullah, approved amendments in the Jammu and Kashmir Panchayati Raj Act, 1998, by which setting up of State Election Commission has been recommended." The draft bill in this regard has been prepared on the recommendations of an "expert committee that was constituted on August 18, 2009 in consultation with Law and Finance Departments. Law and Parliamentary Affairs and Rural Development and Panchayati Raj Minister Ali Mohammad Sagar headed this panel. According to reports, the draft bill will be introduced in the legislative assembly during the next session for its adoption.
This means what? It means the National Conference, in collaboration with the Congress party, wants the state to have a separate election commission. In other words, a great step forward towards that goal the Kashmiri leaders want to achieve: a dispensation outside the Indian constitutional and political organization of India in stages, if not all at once. It may say that its objective is to organize panchayat elections, but the real objective is altogether different. It is basically calculated to create an environment that existed in the state before 1966-67, when the state was brought under the jurisdiction of the Election Commission of India in order to enable the people to elect representatives of their own choice.
Remember, before 1966-67, elections to the state assembly were held under the supervision of the state authorities (read persons from Kashmir and supporters of the ruling elite). It is hardly necessary to reflect on the electoral history of Jammu and Kashmir pre-1966-67. Suffice it to say that between 1951 and 1966-67, the state witnessed murder of democracy or subversion of democratic processes with one Kashmir-based party indulging in wholesale rigging and manipulating election results. Suffice it to say that between 1952 and 1966-67, one particular party dominated the state assembly. To be more precise, there was no democracy worth its name in the state during that period. It was a one party rule or it was a government of one party, for one party and by one party, with people having no say whatsoever.
To say all this is not to suggest that the Kashmir's ruling elite and its cronies in Jammu allowed democracy to flower in the state. They did not. They rigged elections even after the extension of the jurisdiction of the Election Commission of India. Take, for example, the 1977 and 1987 assembly elections in the state. These were highly rigged elections. It was only in 1996, 2002 and 2008 that the elections to the state assembly were held in an orderly manner and the people elected candidates of their own choice, notwithstanding certain complaints that there had been some irregularities here and there. But still the silver-lining was that the aggrieved people could approach the Election Commission of India and draw its attentions to the undemocratic methods taken recourse to men in power. The election Commission of India did act as a watchdog and tried to the extent it could to ensure that the electoral exercises in the state were free and fair. (To be continued) |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
| |
|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
|
|
STOCK UPDATE |
|
|
 |
| BSE
Sensex |
 |
| NSE
Nifty |
|
|
| |
CRICKET UPDATE |
|
|
|
|
| |
| |
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
