New Delhi: DMK MP D.N.V. Senthilkumar kicked up a row in the Lok Sabha Tuesday when he said the BJP was only winning elections in “heartland” states and “cannot come to south India”. He had sought to use a term related to cattle as a slur but the term was later expunged.
Participating in the discussion on the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation (Amendment) Bill and the Jammu and Kashmir Reservation (Amendment) Bill — both of which seek to bring in reservation-related changes — Kumar said the Modi government had converted the state of Jammu and Kashmir into a Union territory because they could not win elections there.
“If they (BJP) were capable and they were very confident of winning J&K, would they have gone in for a UT? The power of the BJP is only winning elections, and that, too, in heartland states,” Kumar added.
The BJP, he said, could never dream of taking control of all the southern states. “We will not be surprised if you have an option of converting all these states into UTs so that you can have indirect power,” he said.
Jammu & Kashmir was bifurcated into two Union territories — J&K and Ladakh — in 2019 by the Modi government, which also scrapped Article 370 that gave the erstwhile state a special status.
Kumar’s reference to the BJP being in power in the Hindi heartland comes in the backdrop of the party’s sweep in the assembly elections for Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh Sunday.
Of the five states that went to the polls last month, the Congress, a DMK ally, only managed a win in Telangana, while Mizoram went to the Zoram People’s Movement.
Senthilkumar’s remarks drew sharp criticism from the BJP as well as the Congress. Tamil Nadu BJP president K. Annamalai said the level of the DMK’s discourse was “sinking like cyclone-hit Chennai”.
Congress’ Karti Chidambaram called it “a very unfortunate choice of words” and “unparliamentary.” He called on Kumar to apologise and withdraw his comments.
Kumar later said that “if it (his remark) hurt somebody, I will try to avoid using it next time”.
The Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation (Amendment) Bill, 2023 paves the way for reserving three seats in the J&K assembly for nominated members from displaced communities.
Two of these are to be reserved for the “Kashmiri migrant community”, with at least one nominee required to be a woman. Additionally, one seat will be allocated to a member from the “displaced persons from Pakistan-occupied Jammu and Kashmir” category. These members, the bill says, will be nominated by the lieutenant governor of J&K.
The Jammu and Kashmir Reservation (Amendment) Bill provides for reservation in jobs and admission to professional institutions to Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, and other socially and educationally backward classes.
The discussion on the bills Tuesday saw Opposition MPs demand elections in Jammu & Kashmir, question the Modi government’s claims about “normalcy” in the UT, and call for its statehood to be restored.
Union Home Minister Amit Shah will give his reply on the two bills Wednesday. However, speaking on the bills, Union minister Jitendra Singh said the government was ready for elections in J&K, but will have to wait for the Election Commission (EC) to take a call.
“We are ready but there is a process to be followed. Whenever EC orders, we are ready,” he added. “Let’s trust the wisdom of EC and wait for their order.”
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MPs demand elections in J&K
Demanding that the government announce a time-frame to hold elections, senior Trinamool Congress leader Saugata Roy said nothing could be done in Kashmir unless elections are held.
“…Jammu and Kashmir should be ruled by people from Jammu and Kashmir,” Ray said, adding that first the legislative assembly should be restored in the state and then reservations brought.
The previous J&K assembly was dissolved in 2018, months after the BJP-PDP government in the then state collapsed following the former’s withdrawal from the coalition.
Roy also called the Centre’s move to abrogate Article 370 a “retrograde step”.
“They did it just to fulfil their election promise… their leader Syama Prasad Mookerjee used to say “‘ek pradhan, ek vidhan, ek nishan’,” Roy said, referring to a dictum that sought to challenge the fact that the erstwhile state of J&K had its own constitution.
The Trinamool leader’s remark invited protest from the treasury benches.
Amit Shah asked how a nation can have two prime ministers, two constitutions, two flags. “This (ek pradhan, ek vidhan, ek nishan) is what the entire nation wanted,” he said.
Participating in the discussion, All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) MP Asaduddin Owaisi, and CPI (M)’s P.P. Natarajan sought to know from the government when it plans to hold elections in J&K and reconstitute its assembly.
The Opposition MPs also questioned the legislative competence of the Lok Sabha in amending a law that had been challenged in the Supreme Court, with the matter yet sub-judice.
Manish Tewari of the Congress said constitutional morality demanded that the law “should not come to this House until the Supreme Court gives its decision”.
J&K National Conference MP Hasnain Masoodi, meanwhile, asked if the Lok Sabha could amend a law “that comes within the ambit of state legislature”.
Opposition MPs also questioned the “image of normalcy” in J&K “portrayed by the Centre since the abrogation of Article 370”.
The NCP’s Supriya Sule pointed to the killing of Army personnel in Rajouri-Poonch last month, and said such incidents betrayed the government’s claims of normalcy.
Masoodi asked if normalcy was indeed prevailing in J&K, why the government was delaying elections.
(Edited by Sunanda Ranjan)
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