A A Latief u zaman Deva
SNS KASHMIR
Institutional framework, so assiduously built by Pandit Nehru and nurtured by his successors, is crumbling evoking scant concern from people of the country whose intervention would have halted the brazen onslaught let loose in J&K by an Institution undermining the very idea of India romanticized by our legendary leader during partition of the sub-continent.
The plain, sub- mountain & semi- mountainous tract extending from Udhampur to Kathua borders Punjab and this broken mass of foothills is at the base of Himalayan mountain ranges with height of about 2000 ft except Lohi Malhar in Bani Sub- Division, in the outer Hills the lower Hills to the south west of Peer Panchal encompass Punch Rajouri region at an altitude ranging between 2000 to 4000 ft in the background of lofty mountainous range of Peer Panchal but in Chenab Valley the territory falls at an altitude of 5540 ft to 15000 ft making it tougher & roughest terrain and Kashmir Valley is on an average altitude of 5000 ft to 7000 ft with mountains 12000 to 14000 ft surrounding it & almost 35% population residing in middle & lower foothills. Given the size of population, terrain, connectivity especially road length in Kms the two Districts of Kathua & Samba don’t qualify for additional seats but having proposed one each for them the case for similar dispensation for Distts of Punch & Ramban can’t be denied as their cases, on the basis of criteria applied to plain territory bordering Punjab, are far stronger and only an authoritarian body can have gumption to deny the additional seats to them but it has happened & Kashmir valley altogether ignored by mischievous inter-play of factors highlighted for Jammu plains & adopting a criteria contrary to constitution, statutory laws, precedents at national level especially the one adopted recently in Uttarakhand where departure from average population per Assembly Segment has been made @ 20 % for hilly areas. The primary criteria of population reduced to secondary levels by linking it with the number of voters registered & exceptions to the Principal law in the circumstances of hilly areas generalised by wrong interpretation of geographical features and nature of terrain. The areas forming separate geographical entities & remaining cut off from the Distt HQs for months together instead of forming independent Constituencies on the analogy of Gurez in Bandipora and Karnah in Kupwara Distt have been extended to territories falling quite outside the inhabiting geographical features and lacking direct connectivity with the inside territories separated by mountains. Total arbitrariness perhaps on the basis of exclusive content they are charged with but the horrendous interpretation of law accompanied with disregard for precedents and faultlines visible in the procedures laid down may provide window for approaching the Apex court much before the final Award is notified which can’t be questioned subsequently as the courts are barred from doing so.
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The seemingly saffronised institution( Delimitation Commission) hasn’t listened to the opposition parties and civil Society dispassionately & isn’t amenable to law, precedents, ground realities & parallels in parliamentary democracies.
The outcome of gerrymandering is that 28 % population will end up by getting 28 seats on the basis of territorial cum linguistic unity, 03 by contrived, but de-horse logic, inclusions/ exclusions of patwar Circles/ municipal wards and another 3 due to contrived wafer thin difference between the population of Dogras and non- Dogras in these Constituencies in the backdrop of widespread polarisation. In 06 of these Constituencies(28+3+3=34) the factors of geographical compactness & elements of roughness of terrain, connectivity and indivisibility of administrative units at least upto the level of Tehsils are biggest casualties. What kind of representative democracy & value of single transferable vote in the domain of franchise would it be when 28% population is bestowed with 34.44 % to 37.77% seats in the legislative Assembly?
There are about 02 lakh migrants outside Kashmir Valley but are registered as voters in their respective pre- migration home constituencies but the data of population based on Census 2011 adopted in the proposals doesn’t include migrant population and instead 1.20 lakh migrants counted in the population of Jammu, Samba, Kathua, Udhampur & others. The remaining migrant population is in rest of the country.
Nothing wrong in having a trans- Peer Panchal Parliamentary Constituency but should have round the year intra- constituency connectivity supplemented preferably by ethnic & linguistic commonalities.on this plank Chenab Valley qualifies for inclusion in now truncated Anantnag Parliamentary Constituency as the region has 65.74% koshur population followed by 5.56% Gojer, 4.45% Pahari and 11.24 % Dogra and all the 03 Districts from the region connected with Anantnag via NH 44, Daksum- Simthan road and Doda- – Kaprun- verinag bridal path while the single artery between Shupyan and Punch Rajouri remains out of bounds for about 04 to 06 months. This will also be reiteration of the recommendation already made by parliamentary Delimitation Commission way back in 1960/1970 as the case may be. The existing proposal otherwise aims at preventing in 2026 delimitation the reservation of Jammu- Punch Parliamentary seat for Sts.
Even a direct interface with the so called biased constitutional body can’t abate our pangs, rightly dubbed by main local opposition political parties as a frontal organization of Hindutva, unless the ruling party scripted proposals adopted by the DC are done away with which incidentally are paper works long back the buzzword of votaries of imaginary discrimination.