Jk News Today
Jammu, May 16:
India on Monday took a strong exception top OIC’s comments on the delimitation exercise for the union territory of Jammu and Kashmir and termed it “ communal agenda” of the block at the behest of another nation , a direct reference to Pakistan that has been crying foul over the exercise entitling the people of the UT to take part in the elections under the revised electoral map in which Jammu region with 43 seats has narrowed the gap with the Valley which is now having 47 seats.
Earlier the gap between the two regions was of nine seats – Jammu had 37 and the Valley 46. But the Delimitation Commission that submitted its report on May 5 granted six more seats to Jammu and accorded one more to the Valley. This has created fissures among the political parties in Kashmir while the political groups in Jammu grumbled that it was much short of the complete justice that the region had been looking for decades.
The OIC said in a number of tweets that it was unfair and that India had violated the UN resolutions by according more seats to Hindu dominated Jammu region and cutting short the number of the Valley seats . It used exactly the same lexicon that Pakistan had been propagating since the abrogation of Article 370 and now after the delimitation exercise in the UT of J&K.
In a statement, ministry of external affairs (MEA) spokesperson Arindam Bagchi said,” We are dismayed that the OIC secretariat has once again made unwarranted comments on the internal affairs of India.”
Earlier in the day, the OIC, in a series of tweets shared on its official social media handle, said it was deeply concerned over “India’s attempts to redraw the electoral boundaries” Jammu and Kashmir, altering the demographic structure of the territory and violating the “rights of the Kashmiri people”.
Bagchi said, “As in the past, the Government of India categorically rejects the assertions made by the OIC secretariat on the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir which is an integral and inalienable part of India,” he said.
“The OIC should refrain from carrying out its communal agenda vis-a-vis India at the behest of one country,” Bagchi said.
The OIC said the ‘delimitation’ exercise is in “direct contravention of the relevant UN Security Council resolutions and international law, including the 4th Geneva Convention”. It also urged the international community, particularly the UN Security Council to take immediate cognizance of the “grave implications of such ‘delimitation’ exercises”.
Earlier this month, the delimitation commission, tasked with redrawing parliamentary and assembly constituencies in Jammu and Kashmir finalized the Union Territory’s electoral map , paving the way for elections in the region.
The three-member panel issued its final order, earmarking 43 seats to the Hindu-majority Jammu region and 47 to Muslim-majority Kashmir. Among the seven new seats, six are for Jammu and one for Kashmir.
