Shadow Correspondent
Jammu, Nov 04
Agitated over the downgrading of J&K State to Union Territory by the BJP led Government, a huge contingent of JKNPP activists led by Mr. Harsh Dev Singh Chairman JKNPP and Mr. Balwant Singh Mankotia, State President – JKNPP held a thunderous protest demonstration at Exhibition ground in Jammu today. Describing the decision of transition of State to UT as retrograde move and against the aspirations of the people, the protestors raised slogans against the GoI and demanded separate Statehood for Jammu region.
Addressing the media, Mr. Harsh Dev Singh regretted that 200 year old Dogra State which had a pristine culture and heritage was contemptuously relegated to Union Territory by the NDA government against the wishes of the people. “The sinister move not only made a mockery of the Dogras but dishonoured the historic decision of Maharaja Hari Singh, the great Dogra ruler who acceded the State with Union of India on 26th October, 1947. Never before in the history of the country had any state been converted into Union Territory.
The step being totalitarian, despotic and dictatorial has triggered serious public outrage which could lead to a civil unrest”, rued Harsh. He said that J&K was earlier an independent state with a Maharaja. It was followed by a Prime Minister and Sadar-e-Riyasat for the state which eventually made way for CM and Governor. And now with Lt. Governor to take over, J&K’s affairs would be run by a Secretary rank officer who had no idea about the complexity of the region and the aspirations of the people, Harsh maintained.
Asserting that the democracy in J&K would further become feeble upon its transition to UT, Mr. Harsh Dev Singh said that the elected representatives in the new political apparatus would lose most of the powers which were conferred upon them as regular members of the State legislature.
“While the new arrangement in the UT would witness drastic disempowerment of the MLAs and Ministers, the Union govt and its nominated functionaries would have an enhanced role in the affairs of the new set up.
The law making powers of the elected representatives therefore also become subjective and restrictive under UT status”, pointed Mr. Singh.
He said that keeping the political executive to a lower division of a league with bureaucracy ruling the roost was against the essence and spirit of democracy. It could prove counterproductive and adversely affect the political system. The MLAs, Ministers and the Chief Minister would lose not only in terms of powers but in stature as well with several constitutional authorities and bureaucrats attaining higher positions in the administrative hierarchy, Harsh added.
Seeking a separate state for Jammu region, Mr. Singh cautioned the Union govt to stop taking the people of the region for granted.
He wondered if the GoI felt that the situation in the valley was not conducive to run under State nomenclature, why Jammu region would suffer for the sins of Kashmir. “Jammu province shall no more be a colony of subjugation for Kashmir and a fiefdom controlled by New Delhi. Accord Statehood to Jammu region”, Harsh roared.
Prominent among those who spoke on the occasion included Rejesh Padogtra, Shanker Singh Chib, Parshotam Parihar, Sham Gorka, Surinder Chouhan, Mohinder Singh, Anil Rakwal, Khajur Singh, Rakesh Verma, Udeyveer Singh, Pawan Rassal, Subash Singh besides others.
