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Journalism of Courage
While it is still a mystery how the smaller parties decided to support the government on its move to scrap special status for Jammu and Kashmir, leaders of many of these parties admitted that there was no prior information about the government’s plan to bring it on Monday. SAD leader Naresh Gujral said his party was not consulted before and learnt about it only in the Cabinet meeting. BSP’s Satish Mishra said he consulted party leadership after the government announced it in the Upper House. Most intriguing was the response of the leader of a regional party governing one of the southern states. Asked what his party’s view has been on Article 370, this leader (name withheld on request) said there was no position. “We just took a decision today to support the government on this,” he said. According to him, his party never felt it was necessary to have a stand on the matter.
In A Fix
The Centre’s proposal to bifurcate the state of Jammu and Kashmir into two Union Territories (UTs) left the Election Commission in a bit of a fix on Monday. The EC was supposed to take a call on schedule for conducting Assembly elections in the state after the Amarnath Yatra. First, the yatra was called off, and then a Bill was introduced in Rajya Sabha on Monday proposing bifurcation of the state. Moreover, the Bill states that a delimitation exercise will be carried out for the UT of Jammu and Kashmir. The EC is now in a quandary, as it needs to decide whether delimitation would mean a further delay in holding polls in J&K UT. The poll panel’s legal eagles are learnt to be studying the text of the Bill to help the Commission make a decision.
