APSCC seeks 8 seats for Sikhs in Jammu and Kashmir Assembly

Srinagar, February 17

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Expressing its opposition to the draft proposal of the Delimitation Commission, the All Parties Sikh Coordination Committee (APSCC) on Thursday demanded that at least eight seats should be reserved for the Sikh community in the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly.

“If 16 seats can be reserved for the Scheduled Castes (SCs) and Scheduled Tribes (STs), why no seat can be reserved for the Sikhs of the Union Territory?” APSCC chairman Jagmohan Singh Raina said in a statement here.

Were banking on delimitation panel

Since the Delimitation Commission is headed by a former judge of the Supreme Court, we had high hopes that this time around, justice will be done. No reservation means that the people at the helm want that no chance is given to the community members to choose their own representative. — Jagmohan Singh Raina, APSCC chairman

Raina claimed that at least eight seats can be reserved for the Sikh community. “There are many Sikh-dominated constituencies across the length and breadth of the UT. These include Batmaloo, Baramulla and Tral in Kashmir region and Gandhi Nagar, RS Pura, Suchetgarh, Nowshera and Vijaypur in Jammu region. These seats ought to be reserved for Sikhs so that they could feel that they have been empowered in the right context,” he said.

The APSCC chairman said the Delimitation Commission was working on the agenda set out by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Earlier, the National Conference redrew the constituencies according to its own vote bank, he charged.

“Since the Delimitation Commission is headed by a former judge of the Supreme Court, we had high hopes that this time around, justice will be done. No reservation means that the people at the helm want that no chance is given to the community members to choose their own representative. The traditional parties are playing politics according to their vested interests and they don’t care for people in general and the community members in particular,” he lamented.

Raina said Sikh politicians like Praduman Singh Azad, HS Bali, Surinder Singh and Harbans Singh Azad had won Assembly elections from Gandhi Nagar, Tangmarg and Baramulla in the past. He said it was the responsibility of the Commission to satiate the feelings and aspirations of all communities, including Sikhs, adding that justice continued to be denied to the community members.

“Delimitation Commission should not take dictations from any government. Scores of delegations met the Commission members at Kashmir and Jammu and submitted written documents seeking redress for various constituencies and communities. The Commission seems to have dumped them,” he said.

The APSCC chairman said the Commission could still undo the wrongs if it listened to the genuine demands of members of the different communities, especially Sikhs. It was high time that necessary corrections were made in the draft report so that the whole exercise was meaningful. —