Statehood delay disempowers people, elected govt: Former IAS officer
Srinagar: Retired All India Service (IAS) officer Khurshid Ahmad Ganie has said denial of full statehood to Indian illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir has left the elected government and the people it represents without real power, warning that the current setup effectively disempowers those who voted.
According to Kashmir Media Service, speaking on the sidelines of a function in Srinagar, the chairman of the Group of Concerned Citizens (GCC) said the absence of full statehood cripples governance. “Statehood has not been granted yet, and the problem is that the government is not fully empowered. If the government is not fully empowered, it cannot function effectively. And when the government is not empowered, it means that the people here—who elected that government—are not fully empowered either,” Ganie said.
The former bureaucrat said that by denying statehood, the rights of the people have been curtailed—rights that exist in other states and were once greater in the region.
“You have taken away their rights—rights that exist in other states and other regions of this country, and which were actually greater here earlier. Now, we are saying grant statehood, full statehood should be given. At least then you would have retained something. It should not be just a state in name only,” he said.
Ganie cautioned that restoration of full statehood must not be merely symbolic, and said political leaders should continue to protest if the status granted is incomplete.
“I hope that when our political leaders get statehood, if they feel it is not complete, they should protest even at that time,” the GCC chairman added.
