JAMMU: Hundreds of Panthers activists led by Harsh Dev Singh, JKNPP Chairman and former Minister, held a demonstration at Exhibition Ground here seeking the dissolution of J and K Legislative Assembly and holding of fresh elections in the State.
The protesters raised slogans against the BJP led Central Government and torched its effigy. They were addressed by senior leaders of the party.
Describing the present political situation in the State as ripe for dissolution of Assembly, Harsh said that PDP having shown its reluctance to form the government with no response to the communiqués from Governor House and the NC and Congress already having conveyed their stand in media, it was only BJP which appeared to be interested in government formation.
He said that BJP having the support of only 28 MLAs was not in a position to form the government on its own despite its desperation adding that with the stand of different political parties being evident, there seemed to be no possibility of government formation in the state. There was no reason therefore to continue with the stalemate and called for a firm decision by the Governor in conformity with the Parliamentary precedents and in accordance with mandate of constitution.
He said that Governor’s Rule could not be continued only for the reason that the political parties were indecisive with regard to the formation of government adding that if no plausible combination of political parties or alliance was coming forth to claim the formation of the government, the only alternative left with the Governor was to recommend the dissolution of the Assembly so as to pave way for fresh elections.
He said that it was highly illogical to keep the Assembly in suspended animation only at the behest BJP, a party which still had not lost its appetite for opportunist politics.
He said that Governor must take note of the public discomfiture at democracy being held hostage to the political fortunes of BJP which was desperately making vain attempts to explore another tie up with PDP.
Strongly flaying the BJP for its lust for power, Harsh said that the Saffron Party which was earlier opposing the candidature of Mahbooba Mufti for CM had now unilaterally announced the PDP president as their favorite choice for CM in the proposed government.
He said that it was utterly amusing to note the BJP leaders twisting and turning in their desperation to reach a political deal with PDP so that their ministerial berths remained secure. He said that by its highly profligate and reprobate conduct, the BJP had betrayed not only the legacy of Dr. Mukherjee and Vivekanand but also proved beyond doubt that lust knows no bars, no red lines. He regretted that BJP’s ambitions had dented Jammu pride and lit fires that would take months and years to subside. While urging upon the Governor to uphold the democratic aspirations of the people of the state, he called for dissolution of the Assembly to be followed by fresh elections.
Singh said that the people of the State were feeling cheated as the powers to govern and administer which were the prerogatives of an elected regime, were assigned to bureaucrats despite peoples’ huge participation in the democratic process adding that people would lose faith in democracy if any attempt was made to unite the two diametrically opposed political parties only to share the crumbs of power. He said that any alliance between BJP-PDP would only satisfy the urges of political parties for power but could do no good to common man. He flayed the central govt. for putting pressures for keeping the Assembly alive despite constitutional breakdown.
Prominent among those were present and spoke on the occasion included Rajesh Padgotra, Gagan Pratap, Sham Gorkha, Neeraj Gupta, Chetan Sharma, Naresh Chib, Parshotam Parihar, M.P Singh, Adv Vilakshan Singh, Ajay Pal, Anil Rakhwal, Khajoor Singh, Kailash Mohan, K.K Sharma, Sukhvinder Ginni, Asha Rani, Sanju, Nirmal Kishore, Ravinder Jamwal and Inder Pal besides.