Srinagar (Jammu and Kashmir): Former Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir and Vice President of the National Conference, Omar Abdullah said that the Centre's bill to empower Lieutenant Governor to nominate candidates for three seats in the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly was to manipulate democratic the process.
Talking to the media on Tuesday, Omar Abdullah said that giving powers to the Lt Governor to nominate candidates on three seats “is proof that the BJP knows that they will not get the numbers (majority of the members in the assembly) but to save their honor they are doing so”. The National Conference Vice President was referring to union Home Minister Amit Shah presenting the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganization Act Amendment Bill and the Jammu and Kashmir Reservation Act Amendment Bill during the parliament's winter session on Tuesday.
According to the Jammu and Kashmir Reservation Act Amendment Bill, two seats in the Assembly of the Union Territory are being reserved for Kashmiri Pandits and one seat each for West Pakistan refugees. The Centre is also introducing the draft law to extend the Women's Empowerment Bill, passed in the Monsoon Session of the Parliament, to Jammu and Kashmir Legislative assembly.
Omar Abdullah said that even in the former state of Jammu and Kashmir, the elected government was nominating candidates under reservation on two seats, “but this nomination was being done after the formation of the government”. “The current government is nominating candidates for two seats before forming the government, which is not acceptable”.
Omar Abdullah was talking to the media on the occasion of the 118th birth anniversary of his grandfather and National Conference founder late Sheikh Muhammad Abdullah in Srinagar. Omar Abdullah and other senior leaders of the National Conference along with him paid homage to late Sheikh Abdullah at his grave on the banks of the Dal lake.
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