BBC News
The three former chief ministers of Jammu and Kashmir, Farooq Abdullah, Omar Abdullah and Mehbooba Mufti, along with several other pro-India leaders, are holding a "silent protest" on January 1 against the recommendations of the Indian government's zoning commission.
The alliance of these political circles, the People's Alliance for Gupkar Declaration or PAGD, has made this announcement in Srinagar.
The Constituency Commission headed by former Chief Justice of India Ranjana Prasad Desai had announced after a meeting in New Delhi on December 20 that the existing 83 seats in Jammu and Kashmir should be increased by seven seats. But the commission's recommendation was to add only one seat for the Kashmir Valley and six for the Jammu region.
In addition, 16 seats are reserved for Scheduled Castes.
It may be mentioned that after declaring Ladakh as a separate region under the control of the Center, the number of seats in the 87-member Jammu and Kashmir Assembly has come down to 83 out of which 43 are in Kashmir and 37 in Jammu.
According to the new recommendations, the number of seats in Jammu will now increase to 43 while Kashmir will have only 44 seats.
These recommendations have been termed as unacceptable by almost all pro-India political circles in Kashmir and are tantamount to 'dis-empowering' Kashmiris.
However, most of the political circles in Jammu are considering this recommendation as the first step towards recognizing the long standing political demands of Jammu.
What are the concerns of the commission's recommendation?
Communist Party chief and PAGD spokesman Muhammad Yousuf Tarigami says the former Jammu and Kashmir Assembly passed a resolution 20 years ago and filed a petition in the Supreme Court to postpone the new delimitation of constituencies until 2026. After which the process went cold.
Now, after the census in the whole country, zoning will take place in 2026, but Jammu and Kashmir is the only region where this process is being carried out.
Muhammad Yusuf Tarigami says, "Obviously this makes the process dubious, and then we challenged the same commission that was formed last year in court and the matter is being heard." How can there be demarcation before a court decision?
Referring to the 2011 census, Tarigami says that the population of Kashmir is 68.8 million while that of Jammu is 53.5 million. Where there are more than 1.5 million people, one seat will be added and where there are less people, six seats, how can that be! '
Political circles say that the ruling party of India, BJP, wants to seal the deal taken on August 5, 2019 by the new assembly by distributing seats in Jammu and Kashmir in an unfair manner before the elections.
Former Minister and Chairman of the People's Conference Sajjad Ghani Lone in his strongest response said, "This is an insult to the sacrifice of thousands of people who have been shot in the chest for India. This decision will affect our future generations." The verdict proved that this place is not for us.
In her response, Mufti said that the recommendation proved that the concerns she had been expressing for a long time were not baseless.
Some Kashmiri political circles fear that in the Hindu-majority region of Jammu, seats are being added in areas where there is a majority of Hindus and in areas like Rajouri, Poonch, Doda, Ramban, Bhaderwah, Kishtwar, where Muslims There is a majority, the representation of Muslims in these areas will be weakened.
It is worth mentioning that on August 4, 2019 at Farooq Abdullah's residence in Gupkar area of Srinagar, Farooq Abdullah's National Conference, Sajjad Lone's People's Conference, Mehbooba Mufti's People's Democratic Party, Muhammad Yusuf Tarigami's Communist Party, Hakim Yaseen. An all-party meeting of the People's Democratic Front and several other parties passed a resolution announcing a political alliance to safeguard the sovereignty of Jammu and Kashmir.
However, the very next day, the repeal of Section 370 was announced in the Parliament of New Delhi and a bill on reorganization of Jammu and Kashmir was passed. Shortly afterwards, the PAGD resolution was dubbed a political alliance, but last year, Altaf Bukhari and Sajjad Ghani Lone split from the alliance.
Sajjad Lone, in reference to the latest recommendations of the zoning commission, accused the National Conference that the participation of all three MPs of the party in the meeting of the zoning commission has given legitimacy to the recommendations of the commission.
"The zoning law is clear that its recommendations cannot be challenged in any court," says Lone.
Farooq Abdullah, Hasnain Masoodi and Akbar Lone are members of Parliament from Kashmir. All three were present at the meeting and have now reached Kashmir and are speaking separately.
However, in response, Farooq Abdullah said, "If we do not go, how do we know what is happening. The commission has set a deadline of the end of this month for filing objections.
It should be noted that whenever the zoning commission identifies new constituencies, the proportion of the population is the basic criterion.
However, the BJP and other political circles in Jammu say that not only population but also geographical location and people's access to basic amenities should be standardized. However, the commission is silent on what constitutes standard in the new recommendations.
The political tussle between the PAJD and the political leaders outside the alliance has its place, but ten years later, once again, all pro-India political leaders are challenging Delhi's latest decision with equal vigor.
Altaf Bukhari, who has split from Mehbooba Mufti's PDP and formed 'Jammu and Kashmir his own party', will also hold a silent protest on Friday to reject the recommendations of the delimitation commission. DK leaders have announced a 'silent protest'.
In Jammu, Prof. Bhim Singh's Panthers party has also termed the addition of six seats for Jammu as insufficient and said that the people of Jammu have been betrayed once again.
Tarun Upadhyay, a senior journalist based in Jammu, says that for decades there has been a perception among the people in Jammu that Kashmiris have exploited Hindu-majority Jammu by seizing power and resources.
He says that after a long struggle, the University of Jammu was established in 1969 and the Medical College was established in 1971. If the whole region is one, then only Kashmiris have the right to power and privileges.
