JAMMU SEPTEMBER 11 (KNS): Saying that the National Conference will resist the nefarious BJP move of including 25 lakh outside voters in Jammu and Kashmir, former minister and senior party leader Mr Ajay Kumar Sadhotra today questioned the intent of the Centre in depriving the people of their identity and culture bartering their rights on lands and jobs.
“Exposed over anti-J&K machinations, the BJP took refuge in seeking the transfer of the Chief Electoral Officer, Jammu and Kashmir who made public the game-plan of including 25 lakh new voters to disempower the people”, Mr Sadhotra said while addressing a public meeting presided by Thakur Khajoor Singh Manhas at Patoli in Jammu North Assembly Constituency, and hailed the resolve of the all-party meet held here yesterday under the chairmanship of Dr Farooq Abdullah in denouncing the proposed move of inclusion non-J&K voters and fighting it out unitedly. He said mere transfer of an official of the Election Commission is not a guarantee that the BJP will shed its nefarious agenda of vitiating democracy in Jammu and Kashmir.
Mr Sadhotra questioned the rationale behind inclusion of a whopping 25 lakh outside voters saying that the Lieutenant Governor of Jammu and Kashmir is on record having stated that 39000 such voters had been added in the 2019 Parliamentary elections. The alarming proposed rise in the electorate now, therefore, is a malicious and calculated measure to trample the permanent residents of both the Jammu and Kashmir Provinces. This is yet another assault after repealing the special status and dividing the state into two Union Territories, he said while expressing apprehensions about the identity of the people here being eroded for all times to come. By such a move the Dogras, the Kashmiris, the Paharis, the Gujjars, the Sikhs will lose their political space with the assembly going into the hands of the outsiders, he maintained.
“Time has come for us all to stand united and fight out the anti-people machinations peacefully and democratically”, he asserted and hoped the good sense would prevail upon those at the helm of affairs. This is more important in view of the confusion created by the subsequent clarification by the administration and the statements of the anti-people and insensitive BJP leaders, Mr Sadhotra said.
Mr Ajay Sadhotra said the widespread resentment among the people, irrespective of religion, region or caste over the inclusion of outside voters has unnerved the BJP as it finds its space further shrinking across J&K in general and the Jammu region in particular. The politically matured people of J&K will never ever forgive the BJP for its sinister agenda and give a befitting reply at an appropriate time, he asserted.
Expressing the apprehension of the Jammu region getting hugely disempowered in view of its close proximity with the States like Punjab, Haryana and Himachal Pradesh, Mr Sadhotra said the influx of the construction and allied workers is more in Jammu than any other part of the erstwhile state. As such, Jammu is more vulnerable to the acts of disenfranchising the electors and thus denying them their due in the process of governance. He said the right to vote should be exclusively for the people of Jammu and Kashmir for being locals and such a right cannot be bestowed upon those temporarily staying here in pursuit of their livelihood.
Mr Sadhotra complimented the political parties for rising above their ideologies and making a common cause in fighting the authoritarian move of including non-local voters, saying the united stand on this issue is in the larger interest of the permanent residents of Jammu and Kashmir.
Others who addressed the meeting Ghar Singh Chib Corporator, Rakesh Sharma, Pahalwan, Onkar Singh Manhas (Retd Asstt Director), Sewa Ram, Anupam Singh Manhas, Rajinder Kumar, Jagveer Singh, Rinku Chowdhary, Shanna Sharma, Capt Devi Dayal, Amreek Singh (Retd Tehsildar), Dr. Rajinder Sharma, Gurnam Singh.(KNS)