Earlier, after alleging ruling PDP
to be responsible for worsening security situation in IOK, BJP left the ruling
coalition and imposed Governor Rule. The BJP, which had allied with PDP in 2015
to rule IOK as BJP had 25 lawmakers, while the PDP had 29 in the state
assembly. Resultantly Mehbooba Mufti’s tenure as IOK chief minister came to an
abrupt end with a call from then Governor NN Vohra, who informed her that the
BJP had pulled out of its alliance with the PDP and the Governor Rule was
imposed. That move of BJP government was widely criticised and termed as
another attempt to intensify the muscle maniac approach towards poor and miser
people of Kashmir.
Azad Jammu and Kashmir President Sardar Masood
Khan has expressed grave concern over the imposition of Governor Rule in Indian
Held Kashmir. In a statement, Masood Khan said that this would further
complicate matters because India fails to read the writing on the wall that it
cannot resolve the Kashmir dispute through the use of excessive force and
state-sponsored violence. It is to mention that the six-month tenure of
Governor’s Rule ends on December 18. This will be followed by the President’s
Rule. The state assembly’s mandate was till October 2020. Governor’s Rule was
clamped in the state on June 19 for six months.
The dissolution of assembly paves
the way for fresh elections in the State amid speculation that it could be held
with the Indian Lok Sabha polls next year. Reacting to the abrupt dissolution
of the assembly, Ms Mufti remarked “Oddly enough our pleas fell on deaf ears.
But who would have thought that the very idea of a grand coalition would give
such jitters”. Senior Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad said that “It is clear
that BJP’s policy is either we or nobody”. Former BJP leader and former Union
minister Yashwant Sinha said: “the dissolution of the assembly is the latest
example of the BJP to not let anyone from the government even if that meant
bypassing the Constitution”. BJP leadership in a tweet has maintained that
“J&K needs a firm administration to deal with terrorism and not a
combination of terror-friendly parties”. BJP’s tweet and rumours of a fresh
election with Lok Sabha elections amply expose the mala-fide intentions of the
party that IOK will remain a cornerstone of BJP campaigns for next general
elections. BJP leadership will harp “anti-Pakistan” rhetoric, and an alarming
increase in the suppressive activities of Indian Armed Force will be witnessed
in the valley during this winter.
Prominent political leader Sharad
Yadav, while reacting on the dissolution of IOK Assembly said that the ending
of Assembly after three major parties had come together to form the government
in the state amounted to “killing” of democracy. In a statement, he accused the
BJP of neither caring for the Constitution nor having any respect for
institutions. Whereas the BJP had said the best option in the state is to have
fresh Assembly polls at the earliest as it slammed the proposed alliance of
opposition parties as a “combination of terror-friendly parties”. Yadav said,
“The holding of local body polls in the state recently despite two major
regional parties, the National Conference and the People’s Democratic Party,
boycotting it made a mockery of democracy”. Yadav asked the central government
and the ruling BJP to adhere to the norms laid down in the Constitution and to
“not play petty politics for the sake of remaining in power”. “Every action of
the government is anti-people,” he alleged.
In an unexpected turn of events in
the Valley, discontented BJP leader and former MLA Dr Gagan Bhagat have moved
Supreme Court challenging the dissolution of State Assembly by Governor Satya
Pal Malik. Terming the Governor, a “liar”, he said there is no Muslim cook at
Raj Bhavan in Jammu from the last 30 years, and there is no question of a cook
not being available in the Governor house on Eid.
Talking to an Indian newspaper, Bhagat termed
dissolution of Assembly on November 21 as “unconstitutional and undemocratic”.
“I have moved Supreme Court against the dissolution of the Assembly. The Apex
Court will see what is right and wrong, as every fact has to be laid bare
before the court,” he said, adding that people would come to know about the
shaky ground on which the Assembly was dissolved. The former BJP MLA said
people had given legislators mandate of 6 years and Governor cannot act as
autocratic and dissolve the Assembly. In IOK, the term of an Assembly lasts for
six years. Bhagat said what the guarantee that if fresh elections are held,
there won’t be a fractured mandate is. “The situation in Kashmir and Jammu at
present indicates that there will be a fractured mandate”. Another former BJP
MLA Dina Nath indirectly supported Bhagat going to Supreme Court. “India is a
democratic country, and he (Bhagat) has every right to go to any court to
challenge a decision which he thinks is not feasible,” he said. Nath said the
MLAs had a mandate for six years and they still had two years left. “The MLAs
have the problem. We could have carried more development in our constituencies
for two years, and it has stopped,” he added. But the Supreme Court has
dismissed his petition. The Supreme Court bench comprising Chief Justice Ranjan
Gogoi and Justice S K Kaul said: “We are not inclined to interfere (with the
decision of the Governor)”.
It is reiterated that India’s
illegitimate occupation of IHK for over seven decades has been a perpetual
source of gross human rights violation and atrocities against innocent Muslims
of IOK. IOK has been used by deep Indian state as “an experiment table” since
last many decades. The recent crude and cruel experiment was “imposition of
Governor Rule” to facilitate the Indian LEAs to further butcher the innocent
Kashmiri people under the umbrella of AFSPA. Since the cold-blooded killing of
Burhan-and- din Wani in last July, IOK has been witnessing an unprecedented
movement and open rebellion against the illegitimate occupation of India. Some
sane voices have started questioning Hindu extremist BJP’s strategy to control
Jammu & Kashmir. Some have even boldly acknowledged that “The Kashmir
crisis is a comprehensive collapse of India’s secular project as a whole”.
