JKNPP holds protest against prolongation of suspended Assembly Parties can’t enjoy luxury of infinite period for Govt formation, says Harsh Dev

 STATE TIMES NEWS
JAMMU: Questioning the demands for Confidence Building Measures (CBMs) raised by Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) as pre condition for the formation of the government in the State, Harsh Dev Singh, Chairman Jammu and Kashmir National Panthers Party (JKNPP) and former Minister, today said that Governor’s office could not be used as a forum by political parties for negotiations and settlement of their political agendas.
He said that under the Constitution, the largest political parties were supposed to ‘agree’ or ‘disagree’ to the offers of the Governor pertaining to government formation and could not buy time on the plea of negotiations which invariably amounted to unethical conduct.
He further pointed out that the Constitution didn’t allow the luxury of infinite period to political parties for the purpose and the State Governor was required to act having already given endless opportunities to the various parties.
He was addressing a protest organised by JKNPP seeking dissolution of the J and K Legislative Assembly, here on Wednesday.
Harsh was accompanied by Balwant Singh Mankotia State President JKNPP and Yash Paul Kundal State President Young Panthers besides other senior leaders of the party.
While expressing skepticism over the political fate of the State, Harsh maintained that none of the political parties were able to reach magic figure of 45 required to form the government and in such a scenario putting conditions or buying time by the political parties on the invitation of the Governor, only desecrated the sanctity of democratic institutions. He said in the wake of the political uncertainty, the Central Government was using political coercion to unconstitutionally prolong the suspended animation of Assembly in J and K.
He said that grant of all perks, amenities, emoluments and CDF to members of suspended Assembly, whose rights and privileges stood suspended during the period, defined all logic and rationale.
Lambasting the BJP for having sold its fundamentals for power, Singh maintained that the Saffron party was desperate to tie knots with the PDP once again by hook or by crook only for returning to power. He said that the BJP was resorting to horse trading, offering enticements and other corrupt practices to lure its ex-ally by throwing to the wind all its pre poll pledges. He said that the neo-jurisprudence of ‘Veto power’ which was emphatically quoted by the Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley to realise the unholy BJP-PDP alliance before the formation of the State Government last year seemed to be evident from the fact, that the J and K Assembly had been kept under suspended animation for an indefinite period on the behest of NDA Government for no constitutional reason.
He said that the powers of members of suspended Assembly remain suspended during suspension period and till the revocation of Governor Rule and hence it was unconstitutional to release CDF in their favour. He accused the State administration of bowing before the central leaders not only on the issue of prolongation of suspended Assembly but also on the subject of wrongful release of CDF in favour of members of suspended Assembly.
Mankotia and Kundal said that both the constitution and the democracy were being held hostage by the BJP which was desperately making unscrupulous bids to forge another ominous alliance with the PDP to secure its ministerial berths. They maintained that following the despicable and meek surrenders before the PDP on the Jammu centric issues, the Saffron Party was grappling for power by ruthlessly murdering the aspirations of the Dogras.
Among those present on the occasion included Rajesh Padgotra, Jagdev Singh, Manju Singh, Gagan Partap, Sham Lal Gorka, Advocate Kesar Parveen, Sanjeev Verma, Vijay Sharma, Rajesh Gondhi, Mohan Lal, Khajoor Singh, Asha Rani, Dharam Singh Bittu, Naresh Chib, Neeraj Gupta, Parshotam Parihar, Ashok chopra, Udhay Veer and Ravinder Jamwal.