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| One more nail in the Congress' coffin | | | NEHA
EARLY TIMES REPORT
JAMMU, Mar 27: The J&K Legislative Assembly on March 26 once again witnessed noisy scenes. The issue that sparked heated exchanges was the insistence of the BJP, the JKNPP and the JSM MLAs that the government must set up a delimitation commission to delimit the Assembly constituencies de novo so that the people of Jammu province get their legitimate due share of representation in the law-making body and attain a status Kashmir enjoys in the state's polity. As was expected, the issue, which is very dear to the neglected people of Jammu province, didn't evoke any favourable response from the Kashmir-based legislators for reasons not difficult to fathom. With the result, the BJP, the JKNPP and the JSM legislators walked out of the House.
It is important to note that Kashmir returns 46 legislators to the Assembly despite the fact that it is far inferior to Jammu province in terms of geographical area and voters. Jammu returns only 37 legislators. If a fair delimitation is done taking into consideration the criteria - land area, population/voters and nature of terrain and accessibility - Jammu would get more seats as compared to Kashmir and once this happens, the seat of power would surely shift from Kashmir to Jammu. This is the prime reason that has united all the Kashmir-based legislators, without any exception. They see in the setting up of a delimitation commission the empowerment of Jammu and, hence, their bitter opposition to the very popular, genuine and constitutional demand in Jammu. It needs to be noted that the constitution provides for delimitation of constituencies after every census.
That the Kashmir-based legislators, who have no love lost for the people of Jammu province, Hindus, Muslims and Sikhs included, would oppose the demand seeking appointment of delimitation commission was a foregone conclusion. But it was the indifferent attitude of the Jammu-based Congress ministers and legislators - 13 in number --, without whose support Kashmir cannot rule over the state that was highly intriguing. None of them supported the demand, notwithstanding the fact that the Congress had both in 2002 and 2008 held out a solemn commitment that the party, if voted to power, would constitute a delimitation commission and undo the wrong the powers-that-be had repeatedly committed since 1951.
What did the Congress' 2002 election manifesto say? It, among other things, had held out a categorical commitment that "when elected, the Congress will establish regional development boards for Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh - to remove regional imbalances, prepare reports and plans for implementation so that the disparities in the political, financial, developmental and administrative fields are redressed and the backlog of previous tasks is fulfilled within six years. These boards will be given statutory status" (P. 5).
The Congress' 2008 election manifesto, too, had held out a similar commitment. It had, among other things, said: "When elected to power, party will restructure the Constitution of the State into a federal set-up by setting up separate regional councils for Jammu and Kashmir…" and "introduce a bill in the new Legislative Assembly seeking to constitute Delimitation Commission for delimiting the Legislative Assembly constituencies as required by law" (P. 22).
The Congress has gone back on its solemn promises and committed a fraud on the constituencies that returned 15 Congressmen to the Legislative Assembly in 2002 and 13 in 2008. By not moving the promised bill and by adopting an indifferent attitude to the loud clamour in Jammu province for the appointment of a delimitation commission, the Congress has simply offended its core constituency. Its indifferent attitude could be legitimately taken to mean yet another nail in the Congress' coffin.
There is still time for the Congress leadership to act and rectify its past mistakes. |
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