Srinagar: Alleging betrayal by the successive J&K governments, the All Parties Sikh Coordination Committee (APSCC) today said it would not campaign for any party for the byelections to the Srinagar and Anantnag parliamentary constituencies next month.“Unlike the past, the APSCC does not want the members of the Sikh community to vote for a particular party or candidate during the bypolls. Sikhs are free to vote for anybody, and in case they deem it fit not to vote, the APSCC would not force them to change their decision,” APSCC chairman Jagmohan Singh Raina said while addressing a press conference here.When asked if the Sikhs would boycott the elections, he said boycotting the polls would too mean favouring “someone” and the political parties were only “fooling” the people.Raina regretted that all parties at the helm had failed to fulfil their long-pending demand of granting minority status to the Sikhs in J&K.“Sikhs had traditionally voted for the National Conference but they never fulfilled our demands. Then we voted for the PDP when former Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed promised us the minority status. During the last elections, we were clear that we will vote for the PDP… but they only fool the people,” he added.Raina pointed out that the state government opposed the granting of minority status to Sikhs in the Supreme Court recently. Claiming that several segments going to the polls were dependent on the Sikh vote, Raina said: “Since many of the PDP members won elections on the basis of Sikh votes, these legislators should resign on moral grounds. Some of the seats from which the PDP won were traditionally NC bastions and it was due to the Sikh voters that PDP members emerged victorious.”Denying minority status to Sikhs could lead to an agitation, Raina warned, adding that denial of due rights to minorities had led to “devastation in Haryana and the same cannot be ruled out in J&K”.
‘Centre must initiate talks on K-crisis’
Stating that the situation in the Kashmir valley was “very tricky”, the All Parties Sikh Coordination Committee (APSCC) also urged the Centre to initiate a dialogue process with the stakeholders concerned so that the situation could become normal. The APSCC chairman said using brute force against the protesters would alienate the people, especially youth, from the mainstream. (Tribune News Service)