By Babar Ala ud din
The hapless Muslim majority population of Indian Occupied Kashmir (IOK) is fearing that Narendra Modi is all out to foist on IOK a Hindu Chief Minister for the first time since 1947 and their fears are not incorrect.
The intention was first unveiled by Modi when he attended the oath-taking ceremony of Mufti Saeed as Chief Minister of IOK on 1st March 2015 after a PDP- BJP coalition government was formed in the occupied territory. August 5, 2019, a criminal act by Modi’s fascist government contained besides other dangerous acts a plan to change the demography of IOK thereby clipping the Muslims of the area of their numerical edge. This act termed as a “constitutional hooliganism” by many Indian writers was in fact a semblance of growing Hindu nationalistic fervor being furthered ever since Modi came to power in 2014.
As per the decision of this act, Ladakh was separated to be directly ruled from Delhi while Jammu (a Hindu majority area) continued to remain part of IOK which had an inbuilt nefarious intent to manage the demography of the area in favor of the Hindu population. The worst blow of this criminal act of August 5 was the law on the delimitation of constituencies for the provincial assembly. A delimitation commission was set up under the chairmanship of a retired Hindu judge from Bombay High court (having no stakes in IOK).
The said commission has prepared a draft proposal and put up to the Modi government on 20 December 2021. According to this proposal, the number of assembly seats in Jammu (Hindu majority area) has been increased from 37 to 43 while in the Muslim majority area of Kashmir Valley the proposed increase is 1 (46 to 47 ). It is absolutely beyond any doubt that this commission has acted as per the desire of Modi & BJP. As per the 2011 census, the number of assembly seats in Valley should have been 51 and for Jammu, these should have been 39. Moreover, there are 15 Muslim majority constituencies in the Jammu area whose boundaries have been so drawn in a manner that they cease to be Muslim majority now. This will reduce the representation of Muslims from the Jammu area in a big way. Measures like allowing the sale of the property to people outside IOK and unveiling a plan of new housing societies in the valley area (to settle non-Kashmiri / Hindus) are part of a great game to change the demography of IOK (ultimate dream of Modi). By these measures in the first step, the BJP & Modi are on their way to achieve their immediate goal of reducing the political clout of Muslims in IOK and put up in place the first Hindu Chief Minister in place with the help of a few allies including backstabbers and opportunists like NC & PDP. The nefarious plan is being totally ignored by our government. We need to pull up our socks before it’s all over.
Note: The writer retired from Defence, Security, and strategic organization.
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The views and opinions expressed in this article/Opinion/Comment are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the DND Thought Center and Dispatch News Desk (DND). Assumptions made within the analysis are not reflective of the position of the DND Thought Center and Dispatch News Desk News Agency.
