Senior CPI(M) leader MY Tarigami addressing a press conference in Srinagar. file | photo credit: Nisar Ahmed
Senior CPI(M) leader MY Tarigami on Friday criticized Union Home Minister Amit Shah’s remarks on the situation in Kashmir and said that “Panchayat Raj institutions cannot be a substitute for legislatures”.
“Jammu and Kashmir is nothing to boast about. The claims of the Home Minister regarding the conduct of Panchayat elections are contrary to the facts. Panchayat elections were earlier held in 2001, 2011 and 2018.
He was referring to a speech delivered by Mr. Shah during his virtual address at the Kashmir Festival organized by the Indian Institute of Sustainability, Gujarat University.
Mr. Tarigami said that Panchayat Raj institutions cannot be a substitute for legislatures, which were the only representative bodies in states and union territories empowered to legislate on public issues.
“The legislature remains an important pillar of democracy in a federal structure, but unfortunately the Government of India (Government of India) has almost demolished this pillar in Jammu and Kashmir. Even after completing the so-called delimitation process and revision of electorates, the government has no audacity to hold assembly elections,” Mr. Tarigami said.
He said that if the situation after the abolition of Jammu and Kashmir was presented by the government as a model of democracy, then who would stop them from repeating the same in ‘Gujarat’ or other BJP-ruled states. He said, “It is very unfortunate that the home minister has ignored the ballooning youth unemployment while playing pretense about the start-up ecosystem in J&K.”
He said that the unemployment rate in this area has reached 21.8%, which is the highest in the whole country. “There is nothing for the central system or the home minister to shout from the rooftops,” he said.