A delegation of #YAIKS led by its President Pt. R K Bhat was called by #Justice_Mrs_Ranjana_Desai #Honorable_Chairperson_Delimitation_Commission here in Jammu on July 8, 2021.

We the Youth All India Kashmiri Samaj (YAIKS) submit the following for consideration.

1. We are in forced exile from our birthplace Kashmir Valley for the last 32 years. No Government either in New Delhi or in Srinagar/Jammu owned the responsibility of their inability to uphold the first and foremost clause of the Indian Constitution of protecting our life and property as the citizens of India.

2. With our extirpation from the valley under the threat of gun and decimation, we the ten thousand old indigenous community of Kashmiri Pandits got scattered all over the country in search of security and means of subsistence.

3. Exiled communities like ours, bereft of everything except a pair of clothes to cover our body, have no congenial circumstances available to them to indulge in political activity, form a political party and contribute to the national political process. We cannot be treated at par with established societies that have formed political structures to rule the state. The State Constitution has no provision like a minority community leave aside their rights.

4. No doubt the State government announced that we the displaced Pandits could take part in voting for election to legislative assembly/parliament. But the conditions and circumstances created for our voting are forbidding and tantamount to a denial of the right. We are asked to vote for the prospective candidate in our respective constituency in the valley. It is thirty-two years that we are in a state of exile. We don’t know the candidates at all whom we are supposed to vote for. The process boils down to machination that denies us the right to vote.

5. We, therefore, demand that as the delimitation of constituencies process is on, the displaced Pandits be given 4-5 reserved assembly seats and two 2 Parliamentary reserved seat as long as we remain in displacement. A provision of the reservation should be recommended to the government so that we are constitutionally as well as practically made part and parcel of empowered Indian citizenry.

Madam, before our exodus from the valley, Gerrymandering had been done in which two constituencies in Srinagar where we had numerical edge had been diluted and connected with a big chunk of the population of the majority community.

With profound regards,

Pt. R K Bhat

President – YAIKS