Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Omar Abdullah on Tuesday hailed the Supreme Court’s scrutiny into the alleged deletion of voters from electoral rolls by the Election Commission (EC), stressing that people are waiting to see to what extent the matter will be corrected.
Omar, while talking about the protest march towards the EC in Delhi, said this was recently decided in a meeting of the leaders of the INDIA bloc in Delhi.
“A calendar was prepared for this month. The beginning was made with the Members of Parliament of INDIA bloc. Today, the programme was for them to march to the EC office. This will continue because the media has also started saying this (questions on election commission), we kept saying it again and again, but very few people paid attention to it,” Omar told the media here.
“And now, perhaps it is a good thing that questions are also being raised in the Supreme Court, especially about the deletions that have taken place and the basis on which people’s names were removed from the voter lists. Now, the SC has also sought an answer from the EC and the government of India (GoI). To what extent will this matter be corrected through the court? We are waiting for that,” he said.
Omar questions implementation of Uniform Civil Code
{{/usCountry}}Omar questions implementation of Uniform Civil Code
{{/usCountry}}Omar also questioned the implementation of Uniform Civil Code (UCC) saying BJP didn’t have the courage to debate the issue in the Parliament.
“The UCC is not uniform until it is implemented everywhere. We will not implement the UCC here. Nitish Kumar’s party has also said in Bihar that they will not implement it. There are other governments that have said the UCC will not be implemented in their states. Only the BJP is implementing it,” he said.
“Bring a law in the parliament if you (BJP) have the courage, debate it in the Parliament and then see if it gets passed in the Parliament or not. They (BJP) will not bring this law in the parliament because they (BJP) do not have the numbers in the Parliament to get it passed, so they are doing it one by one. This is what the BJP is doing in its states, which is wrong,” Omar said.
“If we believe in democracy, then, not in separate states, it should be debated at the Centre and if they bring it in the Parliament, then this bill will not pass,” he said.
‘Rohingyas targeted for no reason’
On being asked about the deportation of people living “illegally” in Jammu and Kashmir, Omar said people from Bangladesh were a different matter but Rohingyas were provided shelter here to escape persecution in their home country.
“Their staying here didn’t bother us much, but it is also true that they can’t stay here illegally. The people who have come here from Bangladesh without permission are a different matter; however, the matter of Rohingyas, who are being targeted for no reason... When they were chased out from their country, we gave them shelter—a place here—until the situation in their country improves,” he said.
He expressed surprise at the sudden action against the Rohingyas. “I find it a bit strange that sudden action is being taken against them. But this is not in our hands. This is being dealt with by GoI who are taking help from police, which is also not in our control,” Omar added.