CPI (M) leader Mohamad Yousuf Tarigami on Thursday questioned the passing of two bills relating to Jammu and Kashmir in the Parliament.
The four-time former legislator from south Kashmir’s Kulgam said 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. “The SC has yet to deliver its judgement. The passage of Amendment Bills at this juncture appears to be in sharp contrast to democratic and judicial practices,” Tarigami said during press conference in Srinagar.
The CPI (M) leader said it has become a standard practice of the current dispensation to take undemocratic and unconstitutional decisions. “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,” he said, adding that 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.
“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,” he added.
He said the nomination of two members from the Kashmiri Pandit community to the Legislative Assembly reeks of the current dispensation’s intentions of never rehabilitating them in their native places. “The members from the community, including DP Dhar, Pyari Lal Hindoo, Manohar Lal Koul, and others had contested elections and were elected to the Assembly in the past. Moreover, the power to nominate the members should rest with the elected government and not to any un-elected authority.”
{{/usCountry}}He said the nomination of two members from the Kashmiri Pandit community to the Legislative Assembly reeks of the current dispensation’s intentions of never rehabilitating them in their native places. “The members from the community, including DP Dhar, Pyari Lal Hindoo, Manohar Lal Koul, and others had contested elections and were elected to the Assembly in the past. Moreover, the power to nominate the members should rest with the elected government and not to any un-elected authority.”
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