Delimitation bid in Jammu and Kashmir reopens festering wounds

Voices from Kashmir valley echo the same narrative when asked about delimitation. The mood is of marginalisation and upholding the spirit of Kashmir’s centuries-old spirit of indigenous secularism, better known as Kashmiriyat.

“What difference does it make for us? We only hope for a better tomorrow. This has to be done with the people’s will; delimitation cannot imposed on us through President’s rule. We are not against a Hindu becoming the Chief Minister. But, any unpopular decision will only make things worse for the common man,” says 62-year-old carpet trader Azaan Lone.

However, Anil Kajuria, a wholesale dry fruit trader in Jammu’s Udhampur, says, “Centre’s decision on delimitation is the best thing that could happen to J&K. It’s time power is shifted away from some dynastic parties in Kashmir who have looted the state dry. It’s time for us to show the power of unity and show Kashmir its place.”

India’s asymmetric federalism seems to have found a soft target in Jammu and Kashmir.

For a state oscillating between belligerence and transitionary calm interjected by bloody terror attacks, the Centre’s proposed delimitation move to correct what the BJP calls ‘a historic injustice’ is likely to get angry responses on ground.

The saffron party’s well-orchestrated political discourse — built painstakingly during the course of their work in the Himalayan state for decades — is finally beginning to bear fruit.

The BJP’s implicit faith of ‘Hindu first’ got more muscle after the recently concluded Parliament election, where the BJP retained its three Lok Sabha seats, but decimated the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), its former ally. This has given the BJP the fillip to implement its 35+9 formula. Under this, the party is aiming to win a minimum of 35 seats from Jammu and four from Ladakh to secure a majority in the 87-member Assembly.

On June 4, Home Minister Amit Shah was given a detailed presentation on the situation in the Valley. Union Home Secretary Rajiv Gauba and senior officials of the Kashmir division in the Home Ministry were present at the briefing. The meeting came at a time when the state BJP has been raising its voice on the withdrawal of a 16-year-old freeze to carry out a delimitation exercise in the state.

“We can neither respond to an issue that hasn’t reached the public domain nor comment on the topic as we aren’t aware of the intricacies of it,” was the reply from two BJP national spokespersons The Federal contacted. A surprise considering that the saffron party considers J&K very close to its politics.

What is delimitation?

Delimitation is the process of redrawing limits or boundaries of Assembly and Parliamentary constituencies. The delimitation exercise is undertaken by the Delimitation Commission.

The orders of the Delimitation Commission can’t be questioned before any court. The panel’s report, when issued by the President, is laid before the Lok Sabha or Legislative Assembly. However, no modifications are permissible by them.

Interestingly, when India went through the process of delimitation in 2002, it was the BJP government under Atal Behari Vajpayee, which kept J&K out of the delimitation process. This had prompted the Farooq Abdullah government to amend the state Constitution to postpone the delimitation process in the state till 2026. This decision was upheld by the Supreme Court in 2010. Incidentally, even in the Parliament, delimitation has been frozen in line with the Forty-second Amendment Act, 1976, which doesn’t allow a process till 2026.

Delimitation and Kashmir

In 2002, the National Conference government, led by Farooq Abdullah, had frozen the process of delimitation until 2026 by amending the J&K Representation of the People Act, 1957, and Section 47(3) of the Constitution of the state.

The amended Section 47(3) provided “that until the relevant figures for the first census taken after 2026 have been published, it shall not be necessary to readjust the total number of seats in the Legislative Assembly of the State and the division of the State into territorial constituencies under this sub-section.”

This effectively freezes delimitation till after Census 2031. The freeze brought the state at par with rest of the country as Article 82 and Article 170 of the constitution of India were amended (Eighth-fourth Amendment Act, 2001) to freeze the delimitation of Parliamentary and Assembly constituencies throughout the country until the first census is taken after 2026.

However, in Jammu and Kashmir, this can be changed on the intervention of the Governor during President’s rule as the legislative authority is vested with the Governor. The Governor can amend Section 47 of the J&K Constitution to delete the proviso which barred the setting up of a delimitation commission. Furthermore, Section 3 of the Representation of People Act gives the Governor the mandate to constitute a delimitation commission. Jammu and Kashmir has the power to revoke the law through a constitutional amendment with a two-thirds majority and ramp up the number of seats.

Brewing discontent

Amid dissolving political differences, arch-rivals National Conference (NC) and the PDP spoke in one voice against the government’s move.

NC leader Omar Abdullah had in a series of tweets said, “It’s surprising that the BJP, which talks about bringing J&K at par with other states by removing Articles 370 and 35A now wants to treat J&K differently from other states in this one respect. When delimitation takes place in the rest of the country the BJP is welcome to apply it to J&K; until then we in the Jammu & Kashmir National Conference will oppose, tooth and nail, any attempt to make changes without a mandate from the people of the State.”

Commenting on the Centre’s move, PDP chief Mehbooba Mufti told news agencies, “Forced delimitation is an obvious attempt to inflict another emotional partition of the state on communal lines. Instead of allowing old wounds to heal, the Centre is inflicting pain on Kashmiris.”

The sentiment was echoed by Shah Faesal, an independent politician and former bureaucrat from the Valley. “We have to understand the J&K is not an ordinary state. There are special constitutional arrangements between the Union of India and the state of J&K. What the Centre is doing is an extraordinary subversion of India’s federal structure. We are questioning the timing and intent behind the government’s move. The BJP is trying to make a government in the state using the backdoor. We have no issues if we get a chief minister who belongs to Jammu. We are only concerned that the Constitution of India is being subverted. The Centre can’t play a fraud on the people of Jammu and Kashmir,” says Faesal.

Even Sajjad Lone, whose People’s Conference was an ally of the BJP in the previous government, opposed the idea.

A leading academic, on the condition of anonymity, says, “The move will create a great divide and violent conflict on the ground. The Centre wants to pit two regions against Kashmir to grab power. It can well lead to a throwback of the unrest of 1987. What followed was three decades of unrest.”

However, voices from the other end of the spectrum have a different take on the issue. Human rights activist Sushil Pandit says, “Delimitation is a move in the right direction by the Central government. There should be more seats in Leh and Ladakh. The number of seats in Kashmir Valley should be reduced. I will request the Central government to go for delimitation before the Assembly elections.”

Us versus them

Another concern is the sticky issue of Rohingya refugees settled in Jammu. As per government estimates, as of January 6, 2017, there were close to 6,000 Rohingya Muslims in J&K. The BJP, which has been vocal and at times militant in protecting the region’s demography, has blamed these refugees for many crimes and cattle slaughter. They have also, in recent times, protested the alleged increase their numbers in the Valley.
J&K’s ex-deputy chief minister Nirmal Singh had last year stated that Rohingya Muslims were a threat to national security and needed to be “booted out of India”. His views were echoed by intelligence units that saw a possible threat of Rohingya’s being indoctrinated into terrorism, making the situation more complex in the Valley.

Reacting to this, Fesal says, “The BJP should talk about equal treatment of refugees in India. Why should they demand seven new Assembly constituencies in Jammu for refugees from PoK? I believe that refugees have to be given rights to education and living in dignity. At the same time, we have to realise that there can’t be any dichotomy while dealing with refugees in J&K and the way they are dealt in Assam. While, the NRC in Assam is singling out refugees who migrated 70 years ago, in J&K they are being profiled on the basis of their religion. This should stop.”