Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Jan 11: Strongly urging upon the State Government and the BJP in particular to bring a legislation in the current Assembly session to restore and reduce the term of J&K Legislative Assembly to five years from the present six, a strong contingent of Panther activists led by its chairman Harsh Dev Singh staged a protest demonstration at Exhibition Ground here today.
The angry protesters accused the BJP of rabble rousing over the issue while it was in opposition but remaining mum after assuming power. They also torched the effigy of the BJP to express their anger for its double standards.
Addressing the media, Harsh Dev asked the BJP-PDP combine to bring in a legislation to restore and reduce the term of State Assembly to five years and pave the way for the simultaneous elections to the Legislative Assembly and the Lok Sabha in 2019.
While taking a dig at the BJP, he said that the Saffron party which during its opposition days overtly cornered the previous State Govt over the issue had now seemed to remain criminally silent after coming to power. He said that during his tenure as a legislator he had moved the concerned bill a dozen of times which could not be passed due to the lack of support, but wondered why the BJP being a equal partner in the ruling alliance with 25 heavily mandated MLAs failed to utter a word on the serious matter which had politically alienated J&K from rest of the Indian states.
Recalling the chronology of events, Harsh Dev stated that the six year term of the State Assembly was a grim reminder of the Emergency period from 1975 to 1977 in the history of Independent India. He reminded that the then Union Government led by the Congress brought 42nd Amendment (1976) of the Indian Constitution simply to defer elections to Parliament as well as State Legislatures. But the amendment was promptly reversed by the newly elected popular Union Government in 1977. Ironically, while the then J&K Government headed by Sheikh Abdullah was quick to adopt the Centre’s amendment extending State Assembly’s term from 5 to 6 years, it conveniently turned a blind eye to the Centre’s legislation to restore the term back to 5 years. As a result, the J&K Assembly term continued for 6 years ever since the 1977 General elections, Harsh divulged.
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