Union Home Minister Amit Shah’s recent statement about holding elections in J-K hasn’t cut much ice with political parties in the valley, who are of the view that as long as the BJP is in power it is unlikely that the valley’s statehood would be restored. A report by Riaz Wani
Union Home Minister Amit Shah has once again talked of holding elections in Jammu and Kashmir in near future in an interview to a national television channel.
“The delimitation exercise is about to get over. After that, within six-eight months, the elections will be held. There is no confusion,” Amit Shah said.
Meanwhile, the Delimitation Commission whose term was to end in April has been given a two-month extension.
If we take the home minister’s commitment on its face value, Jammu and Kashmir would be in the election mode in the middle of this year.
But the local parties are not sure about the timing of the polls. Senior National Conference leader Ali Mohammad Sagar said that Shah’s statement was a general statement which has been repeated so many times in the last two years. “There is no practical implementation,” Sagar said, “All these statements are unclear.”
He said statehood was also promised in the Parliament of India but till now nothing has been done and same goes with the elections.
“Everyone in J&K is feeling suffocated as the people have been deprived of their rights,” Sagar said. “The local populace, whether a daily wager, farmer or transporter, everyone is confused as no promise of the central government is being fulfilled.”
Sagar is right. The centre has so far dilly dallied on the restoration of statehood. In fact, it has outlined a series of steps before statehood could be restored. First in the sequence is the completion of the delimitation exercise. Second is the Assembly elections in the union territory framework. And third comes statehood.
But there is a rub: As for the restoration of statehood, the home minister also made it conditional to the return of normalcy in Kashmir. The logical question that follows is who will decide Kashmir is now normal now, as also asked by the People’s Conference chief Sajad Lone.
“Truth is that Kashmir has come a long way since the withdrawal of its autonomous status and the situation has been largely peaceful. This should have qualified J&K for the grant of statehood,” said a political analyst who didn’t want to identify himself. “But the centre has so far given no timeframe for it. It is hoped that since the calm has held in Kashmir for more than two years, the government will make J&K once again a state once an elected government is formed.
