Jammu, Aug 29 (Representative) Jammu and Kashmir Reserved Categories Empowerment Alliance (JKRCEA)—a frontal organisation of SC/ST/OBC socio-religious groups—on Wednesday castigated the ruling dispensation of both the Central and Jammu and Kashmir governments for misleading the backward classes in the matter of reservation with the sole attempt of luring their votes. Addressing a press conference here, Prof. G.L. Thappa, Working President of the Alliance, said that with the announcement of elections for the assembly of Jammu and Kashmir, all the political parties have started their sloganeering regarding the biggest welfare component, i.e., reservation for SC/ST/OBCs as enshrined in the Indian Constitution. “They have started befooling the communities for their vote to win the elections and then desert them without fulfilling their promises,” he alleged and said that the narrative and counter narrative started in this regard after the National Conference under Dr. Farooq Abdullah declared their “Election Manifesto” with 12 guarantees and none in the interest of SC/ST/OBCs. While elaborating, he said that during the BJP-PDP coalition government, in December 2015, the High Court of J&K struck down provisions of reservation in promotions for reserved categories of J&K.
The late Mufti Syeed-led government neither implemented the High Court order nor filed SLP in the Apex Court for Protection of the mandate of the J&K Reservation Act of 2004, he claimed. JKRCEA he said that repeatedly demanded white paper by the JKUT and Central Government for white paper on their false claims of benefiting SCSTOBCs in last ten years, but instead of that, they are misleading the communities through main stream and Morcha leaders that the BJP has done a lot for these communities. Mohinder Bhagat, Working General Secretary, while countering the false narratives of BJP JKUT Parbharis, their senior leaders, said that all these leaders are speaking lie without any substantial evidence of what they are speaking in public; their sole motto is to get votes of these communities for the BJP and further enslave them after elections. Another leader, Sham Bassan, said that every section of society in J&K has suffered due to the wrong policies of the present government, be it business class, common man, employees, and so on, but the most damaged, especially after the abrogation of Article 370 and downgrading of the state to UT, are SCSTOBCs. “Now the BJP leaders are unnecessarily trying to create an issue out of one lie, the mention of reservation policy on the manifesto of JKNC. It is very clear and on record that none of the political parties paid any heed to the issues of SC/ST/OBCs after they won elections. All political parties use our leaders in their political parties through remote control and create further divisions in them,” he alleged.