No more gimmicks, restore democracy in J&K: Mohammad Yousuf Tarigami

Srinagar, Dec 7 : CPI (M) leader Mohammad Yousuf Tarigami today asked the central government to “restore democracy in Jammu and Kashmir without further gimmicks.” Addressing a press conference here, he also questioned the passage of recent bills in the parliament.

“The Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation (Amendment Bill) was passed at a time when the Reorganisation Act itself is under the judicial scrutiny and the Apex court has heard the arguments from petitioners and the government. And it has yet to deliver it's judgement. The passage of Amendment Bills at this juncture appears to be in sharp contrast to democratic and judicial practices,”Tarigami.

He added that it has become a standard practice of the current dispensation to take undemocratic and unconstitutional decisions. “Moreover, the Jammu and Kashmir government had already passed the Jammu and Kashmir Reservation Act, 2004. The Act provided for reservations in recruitments and admission in professional colleges to the members of Schedule Casts, Schedule Tribes and other socially and educationally backward classes. The Jammu and Kashmir Reservation (Amendment) Bill, 2023 replacing the terms like ‘weak and underprivileged classes’ with ‘other backward classes’ seems mere a linguistic revision,”Tarigami added.

He said that on the one hand the government seems adamant to continue to keep the J&K people disempowered by refusing to hold assembly elections since 2018,despite completion of the so-called delimitation process, upgradation of electoral rolls and tall claims of normalcy.