Srinagar: The Jammu and Kashmir National Conference on Monday accused the BJP of using the reservation bill as a walking stick to reap election dividends in Jammu & Kashmir.
Lamenting the proposal, the party’s chief spokesperson Tanvir Sadiq said the proposed bill is blind to the ground realities. “I have no problem with representation to under-represented communities. That was also the logic behind having an upper house which was scrapped under the J&K Reorganisation Act,” he said.
Tanvir said the party’s opposition is to the proposal of LG nominating individuals. “This should be the prerogative of the elected government and not an un-elected representative of Delhi. The fact that the LG is being authorised to nominate any person is another admission that the BJP are convinced they will lose the next election in J&K and are using the nomination route to try to get a handful of members in the house. That said, two or three seats will make no difference to the future of the BJP,” he said, adding that the BJP should stop hiding behind the election commission and the LG.
Tanvir said that the party has already rejected the J&K Reorganisation Act of 2019, and that the entire process is currently under judicial scrutiny in the highest court of the country. “It raises concerns about how the government can proceed with a decision while its parent Act is still being debated in the Supreme Court. Such decisions go against constitutional propriety as it preempts the SC decision. Ideally, such a decision should have been left to a democratically elected government,” he said.
