Soon after the three member Delimitation Commission headed by Justice (Retd) Ranjana Prakash Desai on Thursday finalised its report and signed the order before publishing the same in the Gazette notification the Opposition parties in Kashmir Valley rejected the same claiming 'we don't trust it'.
Some of the Valley-based parties also claimed it was an attempt to politically “disempower” the people of Jammu and Kashmir as it violated the basic norms of delimitation.
Former Chief Minister and chief of Peoples Democratic Party Mehbooba Mufti reacted strongly to the final report of the Delimitation Commission. "What delimitation? It has become an extension of BJP? That ignored the parameter of population & acted as per their wish. We reject it. We don't trust it. The suggestions are made to disempower people of J&K", Mufti told reporters on the sidelines of a function.
In Jammu JKPCC Chief Spokesperson Ravinder Sharma claimed the report has done great injustice to people în general,which appears to have been prepared ,veted and finalised în the BJP headquarters.
Sharma said, "the commission has done a simple eye wash of hearing people before the draft report and after that, but the report has cleared all doubts and exposed the approach of the commission".
The commission has neglected the fundamental principles and norms, ignored the aspirations of the people and did great injustice to different areas, segments and communities by ignoring topography, geography, connectivity, continuity, physical features and population, which are the basic norms of delimitation, a? per law.
On the other hand, the Jammu and Kashmir National Conference tweeted their party's response to the report as none of their leaders made a public statement.
"We have seen the final recommendations of the Delimitation Commission. We are studying the implications of these recommendations for individual assembly constituencies.
No amount of gerrymandering will change the ground reality which is that…whenever elections are held the voter will punish the BJP & it’s proxies for what they have done to J&K over the last 4 years", the twitter handle of the party read.
The Peoples Conference headed by Sajjad Lone while reacting to the report also launched a frontal attack on their political adversaries in Kashmir valley.
In an oblique reference to one of the mainstream political parties, the twitter handle of the Peopless Conference posted a stern message saying, "The delimitation report is a repeat of the past.
Same traditional entities are calling the shots behind the scenes. Kashmir has been discriminated against as in the past. No change.
Only the degree of disempowerment is greater" .“Over the last six decades, Kashmir’s share of assembly seats in the J&K assembly increased from 43 to 47 while Jammu’s share rose from 30 to 43.
Who is responsible for systematic disempowerment of Kashmiris from 1947? Those who aided and abetted in the journey from Jammu 30 to 37 are the ones who aided and abetted from 37 to 43”, the statement said.
The statement further said that the PC had hoped that Kashmiri parties stayed away and not diluted the stigma associated with a people-less process, which was essentially a tool for disempowerment of Kashmiris.
“Hope Kashmiris will now remember the parties who associated themselves with the delimitation process which was in essential a tool for disempowerment will always be in wonderment.
How could a party which associated itself with the delimitation process be so audacious? They actually had the nerve of submitting one memorandum in Kashmir and a separate memorandum in Jammu. Ironically the memorandums were contradictory. The Jammu one seemed to have been copy pasted from the Hindutva brigade”, the statement added.