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Updated July 10th, 2021 at 16:02 IST

Kashmir Diary: J&K Delimitation ‘Hopes and Apprehension’

The Delimitation Commission completed its four-day visit to Jammu and Kashmir on June 9 and met some 290 groups, comprising 800 people.

delimitation exercise
PTI / ANI composite image | Image:self
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On June 9, the Delimitation Commission completed its four-day visit to the union territory of Jammu and Kashmir and during the visit the members of the commission met some 290 groups, comprising 800 people.

On landing at Srinagar International Airport at 12:10 PM, the members straight away drove to Hotel Lalit Grand Palace on the banks of Dal Lake. The exercise of meeting with different leaders of national and regional political parties began at 15:00 PM to 19:30 PM, in a way, the Commission spent around 270 minutes registering grievances and suggestions from guests.

A five-member National Congress (NC) delegation that met the commission and told them the exercise should have been done after elections and termed it ‘unconstitutional’ based on the Reorganisation Act that has been challenged in the Supreme Court.

The Congress delegation, led by JKPCC Chief G.A. Mir after meeting the commission said, “The commission members told us that the process will be transparent based on the suggestions of different political parties. We believe this should have been done in 2026 along with the entire country with the new Census.” Mir said, “We didn’t give any suggestion to them as we feel this process is not legal.”

Jammu and Kashmir Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) decided to stay away from the delimitation process, as the party president Mehbooba Mufti said that the outcome of the exercise is pre-planned and may further hurt the interests of our people.

On 7th June, the Commission chose a venue in South Kashmir—‘Pahalgam Club’ to hold interact with the population of Anantnag, Kulgam, Pulwama, and Shopian. It was an afternoon meeting that lasted for 90 minutes and later members returned to Srinagar while enjoying the chopper ride.

Same day at 16:00 PM members of the Commission also met people from 6 districts of the valley that include Srinagar, Ganderbal, Budgam, Bandipora, Baramulla, and Kupwara. The meeting last only for about 90 minutes at Hotel Grand Lalit before flying to Jammu (the next day)

The only purpose of holding interaction was to gather first-hand information about the conduct of the mega exercise to carve out new constituencies in Jammu and Kashmir.

Sushi Chandra (CEC) said that 24 seats reserved for Pakistan-administered-Jammu and Kashmir would not be delimited in this process and If members of the Delimitation Commission are to be believed, it would base its final report on the 2011 Census to add at least 07 more seats to the 83-member Assembly of the erstwhile state and would be granting reservation to the Scheduled Tribe (ST) and Schedule Caste (SC) communities. 

As per the members of the Commission, it will be for the first time that STs, including Bakerwals and Gujjars, will get a reservation in this delimitation exercise. The maximum population of Gujjars and Bakwerwals are from the Pir Panjal Valley, comprising Poonch and Rajouri districts in the Jammu region.

The Commission would also take into account the topography, difficult terrain, means of communication, and convenience available to the people, “as earlier delimitation panels did not acknowledge the difficult terrains and people’s difficulties,” pointed out by the members of commission during virtual mode press briefing.

History of delimitation exercises in J&K

Pertinently, Assembly seats in J&K were delimited in 1963, 1973, and 1995. The last delimitation exercise in the erstwhile state took place more than two decades ago in 1995 by a commission headed by former Justice KK Gupta when the state was under President’s rule. According to the Commission, the next exercise was due in 2005, but in 2002, the Farooq Abdullah government chose to put a hold on delimitation until 2026. For this purpose, the Government had made amendments in the Jammu & Kashmir Representation of the People Act 1957 and Section 47(3) of the Constitution of Jammu & Kashmir. The decision was in line with the pan-India freeze on the delimitation of Lok Sabha constituencies till the first census after 2026.

However, on August 5, 2019, a decision annulled J&K’s constitution, the freeze on delimitation till 2026 also became irrelevant. In fact, the J&K Reorganisation Act, which came into force on October 31, 2019, mandates the delimitation of constituencies in the UT.

Now, the Commission headed by retired Justice R Desai is also planning to put the first draft report (wherein the suggestions of the associate members will also be taken into account) in the public domain for a consensus. Only after the fresh comments, the final draft will be prepared.

Despite the cynicism, the Kashmir-based political parties are eagerly watching and waiting for the first draft of the Delimitation Commission, which is to be put in the public domain as the same draft will prove their cynicism true or negate all the rumours surrounding the exercise.

BJP's growing prominence in J&K

The visit of the Commission comes a week after Prime Minister Narendra Modi chaired the all-party meeting with 14 J&K leaders of mainstream political parties in Delhi. PM Modi had stressed the need to complete the delimitation exercise in order to ensure that polls can be held in the Union Territory. 

However, in Kashmir, questions are not only being raised over the timing of the latest exercise but there is a fear that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) was allegedly seeking to create Hindu dominance in the Muslim majority region and to divide the Union Territory into religious lines through the process.

In 2014, BJP made significant inroads in the Jammu region as it bagged 25 of the 37 seats in the province, a feat which helped it emerge as the second-largest party in Jammu and Kashmir, and if the Jammu region gains more seats in the delimitation exercise it may pave way for the fulfillment of the long-term dream of BJP of having a Hindu Chief Minister in Muslim-majority Union territory.

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Published July 10th, 2021 at 16:02 IST

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