Srinagar February 12:(KNS)    Ghulam Nabi Malik Secretary CPI(M) on Friday said that the vogue statements given by the BJP leaders from time to time over holding much awaited assembly elections and restoration of statehood to Jammu and Kashmir is deepening political uncertainty in the region further as it seems the Central government has no clarity over the issue.

Assembly elections in J&K have been due since 2018 when the last Assembly was dissolved by then Governor in November 2018. Though Parliament elections in J&K were held in April-May 2019 with the rest of the country “security reasons” were given for deferring Assembly polls then.

Barring the BJP, all the political parties in J&K had urged upon the Election Commission in early 2019 to hold Parliament and Assembly elections simultaneously in J&K, but to no avail.

And after the abrogation of special status of J&K under Article 370 and bifurcation of the erstwhile state into two union territories in August 2019, the BJP leadership has been delaying the Assembly polls on one or the other pretext.

Sometimes we hear a statement from a BJP leader that statehood will be restored and next moment something else is being said by another saffron leader over the issue. Different leaders give statements in different directions, but nobody knows what the real game plan of the BJP government is.

If the present cadre was working well then what was the need to merge it? Bringing Bill to merge J&K cadre with AGMUT creates suspicion that GoI wants to keep J&K permanently a Union Territory

Even last August during his Independence Day speech, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said that they were committed to holding assembly elections in J&K once the delimitation exercise is complete.

It is high time that the Central government comes up with a time-frame and let the people know when the delimitation exercise will be completed and when the Assembly polls are held. Giving vogue statements over such an important issue doesn’t augur well for democracy.(KNS)