Examiner Bureau | Srinagar:
Srinagar MP Aga Syed Ruhullah Mehdi has criticised the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly’s recent resolution on statehood, alleging that it diluted the position articulated in earlier resolutions and amounted to a “betrayal” of the mandate given to the government by the people.
Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of a function, Ruhullah said the laws enacted by the BJP-led Union Government required reform, but alleged that the Jammu and Kashmir Government had not provided adequate space for wider consultation and dialogue on the issue.
He said the Assembly’s 2000 resolution and the resolution passed in 2024 were sufficient to articulate Jammu and Kashmir’s position and questioned what follow-up action had been taken on them.
According to Ruhullah, the latest resolution should not have departed from the earlier resolutions, as he believed doing so weakened the political agenda on which the government had sought the people’s mandate.
“In my opinion, this is a very big mistake. And I think it is a betrayal with this mandate,” he said.
On the Election Commission of India, Ruhullah called for an inquiry, including a judicial inquiry, into Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar over what he alleged were violations and manipulation of the electoral process.
Rather than merely seeking the CEC’s resignation, Ruhullah said there should be an investigation into the allegations and accountability for decisions taken during the electoral roll revision process.
He alleged that Forms 6 and 7 had been misused and claimed that Muslims had been targeted through deletions from electoral rolls. He also alleged that objections raised by other Election Commission officials over purported violations of laws, norms and constitutional provisions had not been adequately addressed.
The Election Commission has been facing scrutiny over aspects of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR), including changes related to Form 6 and the electoral-roll revision process. Recent reports have also highlighted objections raised by two Election Commissioners over changes to the voter-registration process.
Ruhullah claimed that changes to electoral rolls and the SIR exercise had disenfranchised around 13 crore voters and called for a criminal inquiry into the matter.
“Resigning one of his people will not fix the damage,” he said, adding that elections already held should be revisited through an appropriate mechanism.
He also called for the SIR exercise to be halted until what he described as necessary institutional corrections were carried out in the Election Commission.
Reacting to Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge’s remarks on revisiting elections and dissolving state assemblies, Ruhullah said there was nothing wrong with such a demand.
He argued that elections should be revisited in view of what he described as failures of the Election Commission, reiterating his call for an inquiry into the electoral process.
The Election Commission, meanwhile, continues to maintain that the SIR is part of its electoral-roll revision process, while concerns over deletions and procedural issues have become the subject of political and legal scrutiny. The Supreme Court has also agreed to hear a challenge concerning the functioning of the poll panel and the SIR process.
