Editorial: Disappointments of delimitation
Even after two years of gruelling work, the Delimitation Commission’s final order for the union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir has left many disappointed. The proposal to have an additional six Assembly seats for the Jammu region, from 37 earlier, and raising Kashmir’s tally by one to 47 has ruffled feathers in the Valley. Regional […]
Even after two years of gruelling work, the Delimitation Commission’s final order for the union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir has left many disappointed. The proposal to have an additional six Assembly seats for the Jammu region, from 37 earlier, and raising Kashmir’s tally by one to 47 has ruffled feathers in the Valley. Regional fault lines have been exposed. With this, the Commission has only ended up fuelling the political binary of Jammu vis a vis Kashmir. The bigger challenge now is to lay the ground for the conduct of the Assembly elections in the trouble-torn region, stalled abruptly following the scrapping of the special status and bifurcation of the State in August 2019. There is a criticism that the panel’s recommendations have a clear BJP stamp and the altered electoral map would give it a distinct edge. The commission, which was set up in March 2020 and was scheduled to deliver its report last year, was granted an extension till March this year. However, it was given an additional extension of two months. A significant change post-delimitation is the reservation of nine seats out of the Assembly’s increased strength of 90, from 83, for Scheduled Tribes, including three in Kashmir. Seven seats have been reserved for Scheduled Castes, all in the Jammu region. Two seats have been recommended for Kashmiri Pandits, without any clarity on how it would be done.
The delimitation exercise, however elaborate and accommodative it can be, will not be able to satisfy all sections, particularly in a highly polarised region like Jammu & Kashmir. Only the Assembly polls can ensure real empowerment, a much-awaited prospect in a region that has witnessed much bloodshed and suppression of freedom. While the Centre’s push for infrastructure and other development schemes, as evidenced by the inauguration of a string of projects worth Rs 20,000 crore during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s recent visit to the Valley, offers hope of employment for the youth, what the region awaits is the political initiative — a genuine outreach — to heal the wounds of the past and to bring back normalcy. Putting off Assembly elections any further will only strengthen the suspicion that the government has contempt for the will of the people and the democratic process in J&K. It has not had elected representatives since 2018. The last delimitation exercise was carried out in 1995 and the latest one is based largely on the 2011 Census, though most non-BJP parties claim that greater weight being given to Jammu is out of sync with the demographic balance. Much of the attention would be on when the Centre decides to hold the Assembly elections, as parties re-strategise and reorient themselves to lay claim to the political space in J&K.
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