Shadow Correspondent
Jammu, June 30:
In a press note issued here, Bharatiya Janata Party has ridiculed the newfound love of National Conference for democracy wherein its leaders are crying hoarse on daily basis against non-holding of assembly elections in the state. It further blamed the NC for unnecessary politicisation of a well- considered decision of the Election Commission of India.
Right from its inception NC has been the biggest enemy of democracy stated Brig Anil Gupta, State Spokesperson of the Party. “Sheikh Mohammed Abdullah, the founder of NC was so averse to democracy that he wanted J&K to become a ‘Single Party, Single Leader State.’ He had visualised the transfer of power from the monarchy to an autocratic party controlled by the Abdullah Dynasty. He would have succeeded but for the efforts of PrajaParishad and Jan Sangh which opposed tooth and nail not only his autocratic behaviour but also his attempts to create a ‘state within the state’ with active connivance of Prime Minister Nehru,” asserted Brig Gupta.
Brig Gupta further blamed NC of sailing in two boats. “While on one hand it claims to be a mainstream nationalist political party on the other hand its leaders eulogise killed terrorists like Burhan Wani and Zakir Musa as martyrs. They also refuse to call the terrorists as terrorists but refer to them as militants. For them Pakistani jihadi terrorists operating in Kashmir are ‘militant guests,’ rued Brig Gupta.
“NC claims to be champion of democracy while it conveniently boycotted the Panchayat and Local Bodies’ elections which were meant to spread democracy to the grassroots level and empower the common man. It happily participated in Parliamentary elections in Kashmir only because it wanted Farooq Abdullah to become a MP and is now crying hoarse for early assembly elections because his son Omar could also be empowered by becoming a MLA,” stated the press note.
NC terms the delay in holding assembly elections as “murder of democracy”. Democracy was murdered the day Sheikh Abdullah arbitrarily gave 43 out of 75 seats for constituent assembly elections to miniscule Kashmir and 30 and 2 respectively to much larger and populated regions of Jammu &Ladakh. The papers of opposition candidates were declared null & void on false pretexts and NC won the elections with a tally of 75/75. “Throwing all democratic norms to the wind Sheikh Abdullah went ahead with framing of the State Constitution without a single member from the opposition,” rued Brig Gupta.
While it claims to be against regional or religious discrimination, its members of parliament (MPs) opposed in the Parliament the grant of 3% reservation at par with LOC residents to the border residents of Kathua, Jammu and Samba districts. Its Kashmir-based leadership abhors the Dogra Rule and is against promoting the Dogra heritage or culture, its Jammu-based leadership befools the people by claiming to be the champion of ‘Dogra Cause’. ‘Exclusive’, ‘Opportunistic’ and ‘Divisive’ politics has been the hallmark of NC, asserted Brig Gupta.
NC also beats the drum of being “Secular” but deliberately avoided inclusion of the term “Secular” in the preamble of State’s Constitution while the same was inserted in the national preamble through 42nd Amendment of the Indian Constitution. However, it lost no time in extending the tenure of state assembly to six years facilitated by the same amendment but conveniently turned a blind eye to the Centre’s legislation to restore the term back to 5 years, said Brig Gupta highlighting the NC’s greed for power and disrespect for democracy.
