J&K delimitation: Fraught exercise

The Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) Delimitation Commission, which was mandated with the task of freshly delimiting parliamentary and Assembly constituencies in the Union Territory has made its proposals public. It has not proposed a change in the number of parliamentary constituencies from J&K; the UT will continue to have five seats in the Lok Sabha. However, the panel has increased the number of Assembly seats in the UT from the current 83 to 90. While the Kashmir region has been allotted one more constituency, raising the number of seats there to 47, the Jammu region will get another six, increasing its seats from 37 to 43. Seven seats will be reserved for Scheduled Castes and nine for Scheduled Tribes. On the face of it, the delimitation exercise will bring about a balance of sorts between the Jammu and Kashmir regions. However, a deep dive into the proposals, the manner in which electoral boundaries have been redrawn, and what they could achieve, is troubling. If the size of the population was the only criterion, then Kashmir, with a population of 6.9 million as per the 2011 Census, should have got 51 constituencies and the Jammu region, with its 5.4 million people, 39 seats. Other considerations have been brought into play in deciding the number of seats and where electoral boundaries should run. The size of the population in the new Assembly segments drawn by the panel in Kashmir and in Jammu are not similar. Besides, most of the SC and ST seats are reportedly located in the Jammu region.

It is evident that the delimitation exercise was aimed at shifting the balance of political power in J&K from Kashmir to Jammu, and at benefiting the BJP, whose support base lies wholly in Jammu. Kashmiri leaders had provided input on earlier drafts of the proposals but the draft that is out in the public domain appears to have more or less ignored their concerns.

While a delimitation exercise is needed periodically to better reflect changing demographics, attempts at manipulating the exercise to suit the interests of one party or another will undermine the credibility of not just of the delimitation exercise but of elections in total. This is true anywhere but particularly so in J&K, where alienation from the Indian State in general and from the BJP government in Delhi in particular has increased over the years. The delimitation commission has given the public just a week to respond to its proposals, after which it will hold public discussions in Srinagar and Jammu. It should listen and act on concerns raised by political parties and civil society. It is still not too late for the panel to undo the damage in its proposals.

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