Form delimitation exercise to restoration of statehood points raised in PM's all-party meet
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New Delhi, June 25: "Wanted to end 'Dilli ki duri' as well as 'Dil ki duri'", said Prime Minister Narendra Modi while interacting with the leaders of the Gupkar alliance in the first-of-kind high-level meeting since two years after the abrogation of the Article 370.
The three-and-a-half-hour-long meeting was held at PM Modi's residence to discuss the future course of political action and it was attended by the National Conference's Farooq Abdullah and his son Omar Abdullah, Congress's Ghulam Nabi Azad and PDP chief Mehbooba Mufti, and other leaders of Jammu and Kashmir. Union Home Minister Amit Shah, NSA Ajit Doval, Lieutenant Governor of Jammu and Kashmir Manoj Sinha was also present during the meeting.
During the meeting, PM Modi patiently heard out suggestions and inputs from all participants and expressed that all of them shared their frank views..
Delimitation exercise
In the meeting PM Modi also assured that the central government was fully committed to strengthening grassroots democracy in J&K. He further emphasized the need for delimitation to happen at a quick pace so that future steps towards holding assembly elections can be undertaken in J&K.
Modi said, "Delimitation has to happen at a quick pace so that polls can happen and J&K gets an elected Government that gives strength to J&K’s development trajectory." He also asked all the leaders to actively participate in the delimitation process.
It should be noted that Delimitation is crucial for kick-starting the political process in J&K. Delimitation is defined as “the act or process of fixing limits or boundaries of territorial constituencies in a country or a province having a legislative body.” Simply, Delimitation is the process of redrawing boundaries of Lok Sabha and state Assembly seats to represent changes in the population. It’s only after this exercise has been completed that an election can be conducted.
State Assembly Election
During the meeting, the many leaders including Farooq Abdullah, Ghulam Nabi Azad, Ghulam Ahmad Mir, raised the State election issue and demanded that the government should hold assembly elections at the earliest to the restoration of statehood.
Following this, PM Modi stressed that holding assembly elections is a priority and that the polls can happen soon after the delimitation exercise. It was discussed that elections can happen soon after delimitation and by and large most participants expressed willingness for it.
Restoration of statehood
Apart from it, the prime minister and the home minister had promised in Parliament that J&K's statehood would be restored once the situation normalized.
In 2019, while tabling the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Bill 2019 in Parliament, Union Home Minister Amit Shah had given an assurance that the Centre would grant full statehood to Jammu and Kashmir at an appropriate time.
Moreover, PM Modi also expressed happiness on the commitment to Constitution and Democracy espoused by all participants as well as satisfaction with the acceleration of development in the region. He said that the speed at which development work is being carried out in the valley, is creating new hope and aspirations among the people.