[Reader-list] Non migrant KPs to boycott elections “legally”

[Wali Arifi]

http://www.risingkashmir.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=3109&Itemid=1


Non migrant KPs to boycott elections "legally"

Kashmir is a disputed territory

*Shabir Dar*

Srinagar, April 29: Asserting that non-migrant Kashmiri Pandits would launch
a "legal election boycott" campaign, chairman of Kashmiri Pandit Sangarash
Samiti (KPSS), Sanjay Tickoo on Tuesday said that Kashmir is a "disputed
territory"
Tickoo told Rising Kashmir that his party will launch a "legal election
boycott campaign. "We are going to launch a legal election boycott campaign
this time for proving our point," "But" "Our boycott campaign is a bit
different and has legal backing as per Indian constitution."
Tickoo said that there is a system in Indian constitution, as per the 1969
Act, in section 49-O that a person can go to the polling booth, confirm his
identity, get his finger marked and convey to the presiding officer that he
doesn't want to vote for anyone."
Tickoo said that the act also demands a person to register his or her name
with the presiding officer. "Law says that if the number of persons who
rejected to vote exceeds the number of persons who cast their votes, the
polling gets cancelled. This could be used as a referendum against India in
international forums, if Kashmiri leaders know it," he said, adding, "He
will make people aware about the law, as part of election boycott
campaign."
Tickoo said that this could be a "legal way" to boycott the elections and
the campaign would be a "legal boycott campaign."
The KPSS chairman claimed that his ideology is same as that of Hurriyat (G)
chairman Syed Ali Shah Geelani. "I have a semblance with Geelani sahib in
considering Kashmir as a disputed issue," he said.
 Tickoo said that Kashmir is a "disputed territory" and "India has to accept
it.
 For driving home his point the KPSS chairman said, "Had Kashmir not been a
disputed territory, then the office of United Nations Military Observer's
Group for India and Pakistan would not have been here at Sonawar. It would
have been somewhere in India."
Lashing out on New Delhi for what he termed "orchestrating" the exodus of
Kashmiri Pandits (KPs) from Valley in 1990, Tickoo said that New Delhi has
always neglected KPs and has done nothing for them in past 60 years. "The
migration of KPs was a policy of Indian government. They announced sops for
those who wished to migrate. This led to migration of KPs. Government has
engineered their migration," he said.
Tickoo criticized the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh for announcing the
rehabilitation package for  migrant KPs. "India is trying to divide the
Pandit community. That is why we, who are living in Kashmir have been
ignored," he said.