Jammu, June 21: National Panthers Party (NPP) president and former minister Harsh Dev Singh on Wednesday said Jammu and Kashmir had once again been omitted from the itinerary of elections, thereby ruling out the possibility of assembly polls in the near future.
He was referring to the directives issued by the Election Commission of India ECI to five states namely Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Mizoram, Telangana and Chhattisgarh for holding preparations for the conduct of Assembly polls during the current year,
Singh expressed his dismay that while the process for local bodies elections had also been set in motion, the government and the ECI continued with their delay and deny approach so far as elections to the J&K assembly were concerned which continued to be postponed for the last several years on one pretext or the other.
“Having failed to deliver and to redeem its promises, the BJP was hell-bent to continue its proxy rule in the UT and to run the affairs of the government through remote control from New Delhi. Having antagonized its own electorates as well, the BJP was trying hard to buy time and thereby resorting to delay and deny tactics over the issue of conduct of assembly elections in J&K,” he said. “Scared to face the people in the wake of its multiple betrayals with peoples’ cause, it preferred repeated postponement of polls and continuation of its proxy rule in the UT.”
Reiterating the need for the early elections to J&K Legislative Assembly, the NPP president said any delay in this regard would not only amount to subversion of democracy but also violate the orders of the Supreme Court. “The people could not be deprived of their democratic rights in the state only for the political inexpediencies of the ruling party at the Centre by taking to frivolous excuses,” he said, adding that a full-time elected government was a must to deal with the armed insurgency in the erstwhile state besides coping with the multiple issues confronting the UT.
“The militancy which had erupted in the early ’90s in J&K had gradually subsided after the formation of an elected government in the state. It had almost died down during popular governments but unfortunately got revived during the Centre’s proxy rule,” he alleged. “Any delay therefore in handing over power to the sons of soil through free and fair elections could prove counterproductive and further complicate the already volatile situation in the UT.”
