The J&K Delimitation Commission has recently recommended the redrawing of 83 Assembly constituencies in Jammu and Kashmir. It proposes to add six seats to the Jammu region and one seat in the Kashmir Valley.
In an interview with The Hindu, Peoples Democratic Party’s (PDP) senior leader Naeem Akhtar said many constituencies will vanish as per the draft proposal. The former spokesperson in the PDP-Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government in J&K said a case in point is the proposed Anantnag-Rajouri parliamentary constituency, that aims to club areas which are geographically and culturally different.
The Habba Kadal constituency in Srinagar that has a sizeable Kashmiri Pandit population stands to be dissolved. Two members from the community were nominated to the 36–member Legislative Council that was abolished in 2019, post reading down of Article 370 and J&K was split into two Union Territories. Mr. Akhtar said democratic peaceful options were being snatched from Kashmiris.
Neither the population nor continuity (of geographical areas) is a criteria it seems. In the said proposed constituency, travel from one end to the other — from Anantnag to Rajouri — takes more than 24 hours.
There is nothing in common. The two areas fall on either side of the Pir Panjal range. The aim is to disenfranchise the Kashmiris.
The panel has squeezed all the Scheduled Castes constituencies — six in Poonch-Rajouri — that are part of the Jammu region into one. The region comprises Jammu, Poonch, Rajouri and Samba. Now they have taken out Rajouri, sent it over the Pir Panjal to Anantnag. So in a possible scenario of having to give a parliamentary seat, instead of giving a distinct identity and representation to people from Jammu, they have been clubbed with the Kashmir Valley.
In Kashmir itself, many constituencies have vanished. Habba Kadal in Srinagar, which had a good size of Kashmiri Pandits, for many years it returned members of the community to the Legislative Council….they have undone it. They have tried to divide these areas along sectarian lines within Kashmir also. Overall the methodology is to divide the Muslims in J&K and unite the Hindus. The BJP has been trying for many years for a Hindu Chief Minister, for us it does not matter in a democracy.
When we made the Mughal road in 2005, we faced a lot of opposition. It was said it is a political road to connect the Muslims of J&K, now they have achieved that.
In the previous Assembly which had 83 seats, there were 14 members of the Scheduled Tribes without reservation. There was Legislative Council where Pandits were compensated. The last Council had two Pandit members. Though the population of Ladakh is only two lakhs, in the last Cabinet, there were two Ministers from Ladakh and the Chairman of the Legislative Council was from the region, other than their own Hill Council. They were more empowered then than they are now.
At least two Gujjar Ministers in our Cabinet and nine Gujjars (Scheduled Tribes) in the Assembly. I do not know what happens now. There were five Shias in the previous Assembly and one Minister from the community.