Girdhari Lal Raina
The Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation (Amendment) Bill, 2023 introduced in Lok Sabha on July 26, 2023 has been passed. The Bill amends the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act, 2019. The Bill aims to authorise LG to nominate a) not more than two members from the community of ‘Kashmiri Migrants’ to the Jammu and Kashmir Legislative Assembly. One of these two nominated members has to be a woman;
b) One member representing displaced persons from Pakistan-occupied Jammu and Kashmir
The Bill aims to insert ’15A & 15B’after section 15 of the principal Act (The Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act 2019), for this purpose.
Kashmiri Migrants are defined as persons who migrated from the Kashmir Valley or any other part of the state of Jammu and Kashmir after November 1, 1989, and are registered with the Relief Commissioner (migrants) Jammu.
Migrants also include individuals who have not been registered due to: (i) being in government service in any moving office, (ii) having left for work, or (iii) possessing immovable property at the place from where they migrated but are unable to reside there due to disturbed conditions. Displaced persons refer to individuals who left or were displaced from their place of residence in Pakistan-occupied Jammu and Kashmir and continue to reside outside such a place. Such displacement should have taken place in 1947-48, 1965, or 1971 due to civil disturbances or fear of such disturbances. These include successors-in-interest of such persons. This is one of the most important steps to correct the historic wrongs done under the garb of divisive Article 370 that continued for decades. Historically, the religious minorities (both Hindus & Sikhs) of Kashmir have been the worst victims and have had to face organised marginalisation, exclusion and ultimately, outright expulsion in 1989-90. During and after 1947 this process of victimisation became more implicit instead of declining. This gradual, torturous process of exclusion and marginalisation resulted in the decline of their representation in the state legislature from 4 in 1951 to 0 in 2009 and 2014. Not only have they been completely eliminated from the state assembly, but their political influence within territorial constituencies has also been deliberately downsized to the lowest possible level. This is a result of the gerrymandering of constituencies like Habba Kadal and Amira Kadal in Srinagar district; Anantnag, Bijbehara and Kothar in Anantnag and Devsar in Kulgam districts; and Handwara and Kupwara in Kupwara district. Institutionalised ostracism and segregation packaged as ‘popular sentiment’ resulted in the enforced extirpation of practically the entire religious minority from the Kashmir province.
It will be pertinent to mention here that it is an internationally recognised obligation to ensure mechanisms are in place so that the diversity of society with regard to minority groups gets reflected in public institutions such as parliaments, civil services etc. During its second session, on 12 and 13 November 2009, the Forum on Minority Issues focused on minorities and effective political participation.
A key reference for the session was article 2 (2) of the United Nations Minorities Declaration, which provides for the right of persons belonging to national or ethnic, religious and linguistic minorities “to participate effectively in cultural, religious, social, economic and public life”.
For such participation to be effective, states must ensure that beyond token representation, minority representatives have an equally substantial influence on the decisions being taken. Only then can there be actual collective ownership and impact of such decisions.
Around the world, many nation states have taken cognisance of this obligation and made sure that minority groups are empowered to elect representatives of their choice.
In a situation where it is practically impossible to elect their representative, governments are duty bound to evolve a mechanism to ensure appropriate representation to these groups enabling their effective participation in the decision making process of the State.
Narendra Modi led NDA government based its governance model on Sab Ka Sath Sabka Vikas ; Sab Ka Vishwas. It was quite natural for this government to pursue pro-poor, pro-marginalised population and pro-deprived sections policies. Jammu and Kashmir already has a mechanism in place for nominating two women representatives to the state legislature.
The Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act, 2019 (15) reads ” Notwithstanding anything in sub-section (3) of section 14 the Lieutenant Governor of the successor Union territory of Jammu and Kashmir may nominate two members to the Legislative Assembly to give representation to women, if in his opinion, women are not adequately represented in the Legislative Assembly”.
This is under the same principle recognising the need to include under-represented and unrepresented sections of the society and providing adequate & effective participation in policy planning and decision making process. This is an unarguable fundamental of democracy. Another fact that needs to be kept in mind while dealing with the question of the religious minorities of Kashmir is that Jammu region and Kashmir Province are recognised as two different entities mostly having divergent opinions and understanding on most of the issues. That is why governments had to establish two units of any institution like AIIMS, Central University, and NIT etc. What has been attempted to achieve by the aforementioned amendment Bill is that justice, though delayed, must be delivered now.
Case is simple and can be summed up as:
a. Owing to our systematic marginalisation, exclusion, discrimination and ultimately expulsion from our homes and hearths and
b. Recognising the universally accepted principle of taking affirmative action to ensure adequate and meaningful minority representation in public institutions
The Narendra Modi Government and BJP must be congratulated for this historic step. It will go a long way in creating a just, righteous, and egalitarian society that in real sense is pluralistic in nature. Communities likely to get benefitted have rightly expressed their gratitude towards the government in general and Hon’ble Prime Minister and Home Minister in particular.
(The writer is a former Member of the Legislative Council of
Jammu Kashmir).
