New Delhi: A faction of Panun Kashmir on September 4 flayed the Election Commission
for adopting "dual yardsticks" in announcing polls in Jammu and Kashmir while
deferring the same in Gujarat whereas migrants were suffering in both the states.
"If polls in Gujarat were postponed only because of the presence of migrants, then
the same yardstick should have been adopted in the state while announcing the
polls," chairman of the Panun Kashmir faction Ajay Chrangoo told reporters.
Accusing the Commission of playing a "communal card", he said, "the polls were
deferred in Gujarat only because the migrants were Muslims whereas in Jammu and
Kashmir the migrants were Hindus".
He said the decision of the Commission was a "slap" on the very essence of the
country's Constitution and alleged that the "chief election commissioner and his
team had come with a pre-determined mind to hold polls, no matter how grave the
situation of the migrants was there".
Stating that free and fair elections were "not possible" in the state in the
prevailing situation, Chrangoo made it clear that the community would not
participate in the process.
"Migrants will register their dissent with the government on its policy of
trivialising their genocide and ignoring the real issues of the state by keeping
away from polls," he said.
"The condition required for conducting free polls is non-existent and situation is
worse than 1996," he said and added "to make matters worse, the state saw migration
of thousands from the border due to stand-off between India and Pakistan".
PTI
