Giving constitutional validity to keeping 24 POJK Assembly seats vacant in J&K Assembly will amount to handing over the majority to Kashmir Valley politicians.
In Vivek Agnihotri’s daring film “The Kashmir Files” a communist professor confidently says, “Although they are running the government, yet we control the system.” A close look at the recommendations of the recent report of the Delimitation Commission for Jammu and Kashmir and the “Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation (Amendment) bill 2023” may make many people see the prophetic truth behind this celluloid comment. There are many who are trumpeting the bill as a “historic moment” which is going to create three extra legislative seats in the 114-strong Legislative Assembly of J&K for Kashmiri migrants (2) and displaced people from Pakistan Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (POJK) (1). But there is hardly anyone who wants to discuss the larger operative part of the bill which is going to give permanent constitutional validity to the machinations of the Kashmir valley politicians who have been keeping the absolute majority control over the state Assembly since the beginning of the election process in 1951 by deliberately keeping 24 seats of the House vacant in the name of POJK.
The Delimitation Commission’s report claims that the representation provided to the Kashmiri migrants and POJK displaced people through this reservation “will preserve their political rights and identity”. One wonders how a handpicked group of three nominated members would be able to play a decisive role in a house of 117 to fight for their two communities that have already lost their homes, roots and influence in their home state and have been on the receiving end of fate for over three and seven decades? Interestingly the statements coming from all major political parties of Kashmir Valley have made it clear that the Kashmiri leadership is not going to accept the role of the Lieutenant Governor in selecting the nominated representatives of the Kashmiri migrants and POJK people. The spokesman of National Conference has demanded that the final choice should be the prerogative of the elected government—meaning that it is the Kashmir Valley leaders who should decide the nominees of the two communities that have been their victims.
Since the past many decades the representative organizations of both POJK and Kashmiri migrant communities have been objecting against the practice of keeping 24 POJK seats vacant to maintain the stranglehold of Kashmir Valley over the legislative, administrative and political system of the state. In numerous representation to Prime Ministers and Home Ministers of past governments they have been demanding the de-freezing of these seats and filling them with their representatives. It was in 1951 when the erstwhile Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru bypassed the ongoing national Delimitation Commission and authorized Sheikh Abdullah, his nominated “Prime Minister of J&K”, to undertake the delimitation exercise for the state on his own. The Sheikh smartly came out with the idea of a state assembly of 100 seats of which 43 belonged to the Kashmir Valley, 30 to the Jammu region and 2 to Ladakh. The remaining 25 were left vacant in the name of POJK and the promise to fill them whenever India regains it from Pakistan’s illegal occupation. This pocket diary “delimitation” was given legal validity through the Jammu Kashmir Peoples Representation Act in 1957.
In the second delimitation exercise for the state in 1995 the number of Assembly seats was raised to 111 with 46 seats for Kashmir Valley, 37 for Jammu and 4 for Ladakh. The remaining 24 seats were again left vacant in the name of POJK.
Again in 2002 the Farooq Abdullah-led NC government refused to allow the 4th Indian Delimitation Commission to function in the state. Rather, he used his majority in the Assembly to make 29th amendment to the state Constitution, which froze the ongoing Assembly composition until application of the 2031 national census. This practically meant that freezing of 24 seats and Kashmiri majority were ensured until 2036 elections to the state Assembly.
This Assembly dispensation, further supported legally by the provisions of Article-370 and Article-35A of the Indian Constitution, left unbridled control of the state in the hands of the Kashmir Valley dominated state government, thus ensuring a near total and free run for the Kashmiri leadership. There are innumerable examples of laws and rules passed and enforced by the state government during the past seven decades which no civilized society or any democratic government would be proud of. The laws imposed by the J&K government took away most of the civic rights of “non-Kashmiri” residents of the state. The long list of these “less than citizens” included the refugees who had settled in Jammu from the neighboring regions of West Pakistan during the violence ridden partition of 1947; members of the sweeper community, who were especially invited by the late Sheikh to solve the stink crisis caused by the long drawn strike of local scavenging workers in 1957; the families of Gorkha soldiers who manned the Maharaja’s Army since generations until 1947; women citizens of the state who decided to marry non-Kashmiri men; and even Central government employees, school teachers, bankers and scientists deputed from the rest of India to work in the state. The members of these communities and classes were banned from voting for the state Assembly. Even their children were barred from admission in state-run higher education institutions; applying for jobs in the state government; owning land in the state; seeking loan from cooperative banks or even taking advantage of Centrally sponsored welfare schemes like the Indira Awas Yojna. Even IAS and IPS officers from the Centre who spent their lifetime in the service of J&K were denied these facilities. The total number of such hapless people crossed a few millions. Their only right as citizens of India was that they could vote in the Lok Sabha elections.
The fate of the hundreds of thousands of POJK displaced persons was even worse. They were systematically forced and pushed out by the state government to migrate to other states by creating difficult job and relief conditions. In later decades these POJK families and their new generations were denied even the “State Subject” status by imposing complex rules which kept them unqualified to be treated as domicile citizens.
Altaf Thakur, the spokesman of state BJP unit and others have termed the new bill as a “historic moment” and as a “great gesture” to the two disadvantaged migrant communities. But no one seems bothered to discuss how the Delimitation Commission could manage to push the idea of keeping 24 Assembly seats vacant for an infinite period while the Kashmiri leaders could manipulate it only up to 2036? How can a recommendation by the Delimitation Commission be turned into into a law when it will perpetuate the constitutional hijacking of the J&K Assembly for an infinite period?
Vijay Kranti is a senior journalist of POJK origin and Chairman, Centre for Himalayan Asia Studies and Engagement.