'They are using a stick to beat the people of J&K'

'They forget that denial of basic rights has helped create a big political void which is adding to a deepening alienation.'
'This creates a fertile ground for extremist elements and targeted killings which we are witness to once again.'

Mohammed Yousuf Tarigami is presently the spokesperson for the People's Alliance for the Gupkar Alliance.

The Communist Party of India-Marxist leader speaks out strongly against the move to revise the electoral rolls in Jammu and Kashmir and the apprehension it is causing amongst residents in both Jammu and in Kashmir.

"All communities are scared. It will mean an erasure of our culture, language, identity. The government has to give us the right to elect our representatives," Tarigami tells Rediff.com Senior Contributor Rashme Sehgal.

An all party meeting was held in Srinagar where nine party leaders from J&K met to protest against the revision of electoral rolls which would extend voting rights to 'non-locals'.

The chief electoral officer held a press conference recently where he stated that the revision of electoral process for J&K was now at par with the rest of the country and that 25 lakh non locals would be allowed to vote.

This has created a great deal of resentment in both Jammu and Kashmir.

Can you elaborate on this?

On the one hand, the electoral process for the assembly elections has been put on hold since 2019.

In the absence of a state legislature, we have been put under central rule with a lieutenant governor appointed who is the Centre's man.

From 2019, the entire population has been put under crackdown.

We have been deprived of all rights and means of communications and as stakeholders, we have not been able to explain our position to our countrymen.

Parliament has the jurisdiction to decide. Our state has a long history of Parliamentary processes since 1947.

Many changes have taken place in the country since then. The boundaries of several states have changed.

But controversial orders must be reverted to the people who are stakeholders in these changes and the people must be allowed to express their concerns.

In our state, the entire political leadership was put under detention for months together which in itself is unconstitutional.

There has been no assembly and we have a lieutenant governor who gives his consent to the entire population put under prison-like situation.

We have challenged the abrogation of Article 370 in the Supreme Court. It has been three years now, but many applications on this are still pending.

The delimitation process has recently been completed in Jammu and Kashmir.

The delimitation process has also been challenged.

We have placed a petition against the J&K Reorganisation Bill under which this delimitation process has been conducted.

They have increased six seats in one region (Jammu) and one seat in another region (Kashmir).

But if we go by the Census 2011 under whose statistics the delimitation has been conducted, the records suggest the population in the Valley is higher than that of Jammu. The government does not listen to us.

When we tell the government why don't you hold elections, their reply is this is not in our domain. This comes under the Election Commission.

Has the political leadership approached the Election Commission?

We are facing a huge amount of uncertainty. The chief electoral officer has come up with the figure of 25 lakh additional voters.

The chief electoral officer needs to explain to us how he has arrived at this figure.

They do whatever suits them and they are using a stick to beat the people of J&K.

They forget that denial of basic rights has helped create a big political void which is adding to a deepening alienation.

This creates a fertile ground for extremist elements and targeted killings which we are witness to once again.

How did the chief electoral officer arrive at this 25 lakh figure and what did he mean when he said 'ordinarily residents' would be allowed to vote?

We do not know how he has arrived at this figure which has caused a huge amount of conern and resentment.

You can see the sense of hopelessness on everyone's face. People in Jammu are equally concerned.

Representatives from Jammu who attended the meeting on Monday said this would provide an opportunity for the BJP to meddle with the electoral rolls.

But what does the word 'ordinarily staying' for voters mean?

These voters are not ordinarily living in Jammu and Kashmir.... it is a very loose definition.

My question also is who are these people? This apprehension is very real.

It is there very strongly amongst the p1eople of Jammu also.

All communities are scared. It will mean an erasure of our culture, language, identity.

The government has to give us the right to elect our representatives.

What line of 1action has the all party meet decided to follow?

We have decided to approach all the national parties across the country.

The Congress leaders participated in the meeting held on Monday.

We will reach out to prominent citizens and to all other institutions.

The real irony is how they are trying to isolate us from the democratic mainstream.

Feature Presentation: Aslam Hunani/Rediff.com