The All Parties Sikh Coordination Committee (APSCC) on Thursday said that the Delimitation Commission wants to disenfranchise the Sikh community.
“If 16 seats can be reserved for the scheduled castes and scheduled tribes in Jammu and Kashmir assembly why no seat can be reserved for the Sikhs,” APSCC Chairman Jagmohan Singh Raina said.
He said that this is despite the fact that at least eight seats can be reserved for the community.
“There are many Sikh dominated constituencies across the length and breadth of Jammu and Kashmir. These include Batmaloo, Baramulla and Tral in Kashmir region and Gandhi Nagar, R S 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,” said Raina.
The APSCC Chairman said that the Delimitation Commission is working on the agenda set out by the Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP).
He accused the other political parties of playing politics over the issue and said that National Conference redrew the constituencies according to their own vote bank.
“Since the Delimitation Commission is headed by a former judge of Supreme Court we had high hopes that this time around justice would be done.”
“No reservation means that the people at helm want that no chance is given to the community members to choose their own representative.”
“The traditional political parties are playing politics according to their vested interests and they don’t care for people in general and the community members in particular,” said Raina.
