Shadow Correspondent
Jammu, June, 19
The 42nd Amendment of the Constitution of India to raise the term of Parliament and State Assemblies to six years by deferring the scheduled polls of these democratic institutions during the Indira Gandhi rule at the centre was immediately adopted by the then NC government under Sheikh Mohammed Abdullah. The same Amendment, when reversed by Morarji Desai government in 1977, was not adopted by Jammu and Kashmir government, for the simple reason that it did not suit the interests and convenience of the Valley leaders. From 1977 onwards, the tenure of the State Assemblies has been 5 years across the country barring J&K, which still persists with six years term.
In a statement, BJP State Spokesperson, Balbir Ram Rattan, said that the then State government under Sheikh Mohammed Abdullah immediately adopted the Amendment which paved way to extend the term of the Assembly to 6 years but did not welcome legislation to restore the term to 5 years.
The people of the state should understand the dubious role of the NC, which time and again, cries that the Central Rules are not beneficial to the state and question it to explain what advantage was there in adopting six-year-term and come out with the disadvantages which are inherent in reducing term of Assembly to five years.
Balbir said that it is irony that any Law which suits personal interests of Kashmir-centric political parties are adopted but follow up Amendments are rejected. Like other states, J&K is also an integral part of India and hence it should have similar laws that are enacted by the Parliament for the country.
The Spokesperson said that the BJP has always stood for reducing the term of the State Assembly to five years and calls upon the intellectual class, think tanks and opinion makers to educate the people of Kashmir, Jammu and Ladakh about the self interests of the family run political parties of Kashmir, who have always misled and befooled them for vote bank politics and enjoyed power for decades least bothering about the nation and interests of the nation in this border state, which has suffered a lot due to wrong and self-centered politics of the National Conference in particular.
