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Former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister and president of newly fashioned People’s Alliance for Gupkar Declaration (PAGD) Farooq Abdullah has shot off a letter to J&Ok Election Commissioner Ok Ok Sharma, complaining that the Alliance’s candidates had been being denied a degree enjoying area within the upcoming polls for the District Development Councils (DDC) within the identify of safety.
The letter was despatched amid the allegations by the People’s Alliance that the police is stopping its candidates from campaigning by lodging them into “secure” lodging within the identify of safety.
“I am taking the liberty of writing to you about the upcoming DDC elections. A strange and a unique feature has come to the fore. Candidates put up by the PAGD are immediately whisked away to ‘secure locations’ in the name of security and confined to those ‘secure locations’,” Abdullah wrote within the letter. “They are not allowed to canvass, they are completely out of touch with those from whom they are supposed to seek votes.”
In his letter, Abdullah has accused the federal government of “interfering” within the democratic course of.
“The current state of affairs in the realm of security is blatantly oriented towards providing security to a select few and confining others,” Abdullah stated in an obvious reference to the BJP and PAGD candidates, respectively. “This comes across more as an attempt to interfere in the democratic process than any real concern for the wellbeing of the contestants. Security cannot and should not be used as a tool or an excuse to interfere in democratic processes.”
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Abdullah, in his letter, additionally acknowledged that it was the job of the federal government to present safety to the candidates contesting the DDC polls.
“Security is a challenge and it is for the government of the day to counter that challenge in a manner which is fair and transparent,” Abdullah stated, including that: “Providing security to a select few and literally interning the rest is a gross interference in democracy.”
Saying that the journey of democracy in J&Ok is soaked in blood, Abdullah has termed the federal government “interference” within the polls as “desecration of those sacrifices”.
“May I add that the evolution of democracy in J and K is distinctive compared to any other part of the country. The journey is a bloodied journey, soaked in the blood of thousands of political workers who have laid down their lives for the sake of democracy. It is a desecration of those sacrifices when the very conflict that consumed their lives is used as an alibi to customize democracy,” Abdullah has written.
“Democracy is still in a state of fragility in J and K. Governments come and go. No government has the right to alter the institutional foundations of democracy in J and K, nourished by the sacrifices of thousands of political workers,” he added.
Abdullah stated that being in energy prior to now, they’re conscious of the safety challenges in J&Ok. “Our parties have been in power in the past and have had the opportunity to head and run the government. We are aware of the challenges posed in the realm of security in a place beset by violence,” the letter learn. “These challenges are not new but have been painfully persisting for the last three decades. But the government had structures in place which ensured security for all contestants irrespective of the ideology they espoused or the parties they represented.”
Meanwhile, the PAGD vice-president and PDP President Mehbooba Mufti additionally raised the difficulty and known as for the intervention of J&Ok’s Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha.
“GOI sabotaging participation of non-BJP parties in DDC polls. PDPs Bashir Ahmed despite having adequate security has been detained at Pahalgam on the pretext of security. Today is the last day for filing nominations & have spoken to DC Anantnag for his release,” Mufti tweeted.
In the first part of the DDC elections scheduled to be held on November 28, 167 candidates are within the fray from 10 districts within the Valley. In the second part, 227 candidates have filed their nomination (topic to scrutiny) papers, and nominations for the third part are nonetheless being acquired.
The choice of mainstream events to contest DDC polls is probably going to open up political area after virtually 15 months for the reason that abrogation of Jammu and Kashmir’s particular standing and downgrading of the state into two Union Territories final August.
© The Indian Express (P) Ltd
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