Harsh Dev Singh
The J&K Legislative Assembly was suspended on June 19th, 2018 on which date the then Chief Minister, Mehbooba Mufti submitted her resignation as she had lost the majority support in the legislature. This had happened due to withdrawal of support by BJP to PDP. The BJP which had continued to support PDP since 2015 suddenly realized one fine morning that it could no longer keep the three year old “marriage of convenience” intact. The PDP govt fell on the fateful date. But a new development took place. The opposition parties including NC, Congress, PC and PDP offered to form the govt claiming that they had the requisite numbers. They staked their claim before the then Governor J&K on the strength of their majority in the legislature who however preferred to dissolve the Assembly. And on opposition alleging a foul play in preventing them to form the govt, the Governor claimed that he never received the formal communication in this regard from the said parties as his fax machine was out of order. Shocking but true. Here I am not favouring any of the parties who had staked the claim to form the govt. Maybe I have been their strong opponent. But then the mandate of the constitution was required to be respected and an opportunity given to them to prove their majority in consonance with the principles of our ‘vibrant and ebullient democracy’ which however was avoided. The blame was deflected upon the ‘in-operational’ fax-machine which hit the headlines the country over and which would most likely find its place in the Archives, after the change of govt, as an instrument of political sabotage in the legislative history of the country.
The fax-machine having been declared out of order, the elected representatives were pre-maturely absolved of their role and responsibilities as legislators. And the political parties were made to accept the decision partly under duress and partly under the assurance that elections would soon be held to pave way for new govt. The mode and manner in which the Legislative Assembly of J&K was dissolved will, however, remain etched in public memory as a watershed moment in the perversion of fundamental principles enshrined in our democratic jurisprudence. It further speaks volumes about the decadence of constitutional values and collapse of our democratic system in a state like J&K.
The aforesaid episode however is only a tip of the ice-berg. Democracy continues to be abused and outraged in J&K by the present rulers and running the affairs of the Govt for the last four years in J&K through their proxies. And when the people press for restoration of democratic Govt, the helmsmen either issue a statement assuring early elections or silence the protagonists of democracy through the coercive apparatus of the state. With all this happening for the last four years, democracy continues to be delayed and denied in J&K on one pretext or the other in contravention of the spirit of the constitution and the ‘obiter dicta’ and rulings of the Apex Court of the country.
The Supreme Court on varied occasions has held that Assembly Elections must be held within six months in all those States/UTs where Assemblies are pre-maturely dissolved. Even in the recent Judgement of Supreme Court pertaining to State of Maharashtra, the top court re-iterated that there is statutory obligation to fill Assembly seats within six months so as to ensure that the people were not deprived of due representation. “You can’t create a constitutional void, a hiatus situation for the constituencies”, the Supreme Court has again observed adding further that it is the people who eventually suffer in the absence of an elected representative to espouse their cause. Denying democratic govt is a punishment to the people, as observed by the top court as well.
It is however shocking that the Assembly Elections continue to be denied in J&K on flimsy grounds only to enable the BJP to run the affairs of govt in J&K through its chosen ones. J&K has been deprived of democratic govt for the last four years. Elections are being delayed and denied and continue to be postponed for one reason or the other. Sometimes they are denied on the grounds of the security scenario, sometimes on the pretext of unfinished Delimitation exercise, sometimes on the grounds of Amar Nath Ji pilgrimage, while at other times by taking the plea of intense cold or hot weather conditions or heavy snowfall. And while the constitution continues to be subverted by taking freakish excuses to deny Democracy to the people of J&K, the rulings of Supreme Court on time bound restoration of democratic govts in States/UTs too continue to be violated with impunity by the present rulers.
Delaying the elections on the pretext of non-completion of the Delimitation process is also unjustified. When the State of Andhra Pradesh was bifurcated and the state of Telangana created, no Delimitation was held and Assembly Elections were conducted immediately thereafter. It was then stated that no delimitation can take place in the country before first census after the year 2026 in view of constitutional Amendment effected by the then NDA govt in 2001-2002. In the case of J&K however, the very same NDA was adopting different yardsticks to delay and deny elections with a view to continue its proxy rule. Even Delimitation Commission worked at snails pace giving rise to speculations that it had so prolonged the exercise at the behest of BJP. With the people having been deprived of popular rule and their right to have an elected govt of their own, the onus also lay on the ECI and Delimitation Commission to explain and justify their role as autonomous bodies.
It is further pertinent to mention that the Election Commission had earlier taken a call for simultaneous polls of Assembly and Parliament in 2019 which however did not materialize due to the interference by one political party. ECI later issued a statement on 4th June, 2019 stating therein that the EC after the conduct of Amarnath Yatra will announce the election schedule for the conduct of Assembly Elections in J&K it too turned out to be a damp squib. And during the visit of Full Election Commission headed by CEC to J&K in February, 2019 all political parties except BJP had favoured Assembly Elections in J&K in April-May, 2019. The said Elections were however avoided at the behest of BJP alone to keep the ruling party in good humour. Likewise, statements of early Assembly polls were issued by central govt, Governor and the Lt. Governor of J&K also, which too have created only cynicism amongst the masses in view of the frequency with which they were made and then forgotten.
The ECI too seems to have gone in hibernation. Is it an indirect support to BJP by allowing its proxy rule to continue in the troubled territory of J&K. At stake therefore is not only the institution but all that the constitution stands for. The ECI was holding elections in other states without uttering a single word about J&K Elections which are being denied for the last around five years since 2018. And only recently the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) J&K made a statement that the PRI’s, local bodies and Parliament elections would be held as per schedule in the current financial year itself. But what about the Assembly elections? Why are ECI and the BJP govt keeping mum over the issue despite all bottlenecks including delimitation and publication of electoral rolls after creation of new assembly constituencies having been finalized besides, normalcy as never before also having been restored.
The pertinent question which arises therefore is whether a democratic Govt could be denied to the people for long as five years and that too without any justifiable reason. Elections are said to be the bedrock of democracy. They have been held to be the barometer of democracy by the top court of the country. There can be no democracy without free and periodic elections. In Indira Gandhi Vs Raj Narain Case, the supreme court held that all the seven judges who constituted the majority in Keshva Nanda Bharti’s case were agreed that “democratic process was part of the basic structure of the constitution and that holding periodic elections was a constitutional obligation. Likewise there are several judgements of the Apex court of the country mandating periodic elections which however continue to be violated by the powers that be.
Will the protagonists and champions of democracy therefore rise to the occasion so to ensure extension of constitutional guarantees to the citizens of incarcerated land of J&K? After all, the constitutional outrage can’t be allowed to continue indefinitely.
(The author is State President J&K National Panthers Party)
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