A few days ago, the Election Commission of India under its management The schedule of assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir has been released Which is happening in three stages.
The first phase of elections will end on September 18, while the third and final phase will end on October 1. Elections are being held in Jammu and Kashmir after almost six years of Governor’s rule. The last assembly elections were held in 2014. The five-year constitutional term of this assembly was to be completed in 2019, but in 2018, the assembly was dissolved before its term.
Thereafter on 5th August 2019 Jammu and Kashmir in the Constitution of India By changing the special position And the state was downgraded into two centrally administered parts called Union Territories. These two Union Territories are Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh.
After 2019, the tenure of the Lt. Governor was also extended and thus for the last six years, Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh are directly at the mercy of the Lt. Governor.
What is different about these elections?
This is not the first time that Jammu and Kashmir has never been ruled by a Governor. Governor’s rule was imposed for the first time in 1977 after the fall of Sheikh Abdullah’s government, and thus, Governor’s rule has been imposed eight times. The longest-lasting Governor’s rule was from 1990 to 1996. It was a very chaotic time when militancy was at its peak and Kashmiri Pandits were forced to leave their homes.
But in the past, whenever elections were held after Governor’s rule, the atmosphere was quite different from today. Earlier, when assembly elections were held, Jammu and Kashmir had its own constitution and flag under the Constitution of India and Jammu and Kashmir was a complete state. The recent elections are taking place in an environment where Jammu and Kashmir is a Union Territory directly administered by the Centre.
Status of Assembly in Union Territory
Currently, India has 28 states and nine union territories. The Seventh Schedule of the Constitution of India divides the subjects of governance and power between the Center and its units. These subjects are classified into three lists namely Union List, State List and Concurrent List. The Parliament of India (Lok Sabha, Rajya Sabha) has the power to legislate on all 97 subjects included in the Union List.
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66 subjects included in the State List are legislated by the State Assemblies and there are a total of 47 subjects in the Concurrent List on which both the Parliament and the State Assemblies can legislate.
If there is a conflict between the interests of the Parliament and the State on any of the subjects included in the concurrent list or there is a conflict between the two, then the law of the Parliament will prevail.
Three of the nine Union Territories have legislative assemblies. These are Jammu and Kashmir, Delhi and Pudu Cheri. Assembly of Union Territories is very weak with limited powers unlike state assembly. Since the Union Territory is administered by the Centre, most of the matters covered by the Seventh Schedule are controlled by the Centre.
It becomes more alarming when there are two separate party governments at the Center and the UTs and they do not interact at all.
The conflict between Delhi and the Center is a clear example of this. Currently in Delhi Arvind Kejriwal but the Bharatiya Janata Party at the centre. Kejriwal has also demanded statehood for Delhi several times. The bureaucracy and police within Delhi is directly under the control of the Center and Kejriwal is helpless as Chief Minister, which he has expressed from time to time.
Like Delhi, Jammu and Kashmir is also currently a union territory, in which it is being said that the upcoming assembly will be the weakest assembly in the history of Jammu and Kashmir after independence. During the budget session last month, the Parliament further enhanced the powers of the Lieutenant Governor of Jammu and Kashmir.
Meanwhile, the main stream political parties, National Conference and PDP, in their election manifestos have talked about restoring the constitutional special status of Jammu and Kashmir, and bringing back the status of the state.
The BJP promises that it will be granted statehood when the time is right, but its strategy is not clear, nor has it understood what it defines as the right time.
Note: Muhammad Arshad Chauhan is a journalist and columnist based in Delhi.
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2024-08-27 07:16:20
