Amid the row over an addition of nearly 25 lakh new voters, the Jammu and Kashmir Peoples Conference on Friday asked the government to come out with the “unvarnished truth” on the issue that has sparked protests in the Union Territory.
Its Chairman Sajad Lone said that the statement by the Election Commission allowing non-locals to vote in Assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir has created new fears among the people.
“The statement has heightened the fears of demographic intervention and demographic change. We know the set of laws that prevail across the country but what matters here is not the application of the law but the intentions of those implementing the law,” Lone said in a statement.
All mainstream parties in Kashmir have hit out at the BJP over the addition of new voters. National Conference President Farooq Abdulllah has called for an all party meeting to discuss the future strategy.
Lone maintained that in the last three years, “disempowerment” of the inhabitants of Jammu and Kashmir has become a continuous process and is achieved “incrementally with unfailing frequency.
“This is nothing short of a threat of disempowering whatever little vestigial empowerment that remains. The reality as it stares in our faces is that post August 5, 2019, there has been unabated disempowerment every passing day and there seems to be little evidence that those at the helm of disempowerment are even remotely fatigued.
“They make us feel like aliens in our own motherland. It is a typical case of the rulers and the ruled. We are the ruled commodities. The rulers are not from this place and have no stakes in the future of J&K.
“This is not just against the basic tenets and spirit of democracy but also defeats the whole purpose of provincialism, federalism and regional aspirations”, he added.
Lone said that Kashmir has a history of stolen elections and these statements were ugly reminders of those stolen elections and indicative of the nursing intentions of stealing elections in the future.
“We hope that … the government recognises its failings and makes amends for the errors made in the past three years. The perception among the people is that the Central government is up to its old tricks”, he added.
“We appeal to the government to make public their version of events. Let reality be reflected as it exists.”
