The issue was erupted in Kashmir over a proposal to redraw the region’s electorl map.
The draft proposes an increase in assembly seats that could raise the influence of the Hindu-dominated Jammu region in the disputed region’s electoral politics.
Residents of the Muslim-dominated Kashmir valley fear this will reduce their say in choosing leaders. Mainstream political leaders say this could sound the death knell for pro-India politics in the region.
The latest move comes on the heels of various other measures that have increased the sense of alienation people in Muslim-majority Kashmir feel from the rest of India, which is overwhelmingly Hindu.
Relations between Kashmir and Delhi have been tense for decades but became worse after 2019 – when Narendra Modi’s Hindu nationalist government stripped Jammu and Kashmir state of its special status and divided it into two federally-administered territories.
It also imposed restrictive measures, including a security crackdown and communication blockade that cut off the region from the world for several months.
An insurgency in Kashmir against Indian rule has claimed thousands of lives over the last three decades.
Kashmir is one of the world’s most militarised zones, where alleged excesses committed by security forces against civilians have led to massive anger and resentment, regularly sparking huge protests.
“My apprehensions about the Delimitation Commission weren’t misplaced. They want to pitch people against each other by ignoring the population census,” wrote Mehbooba Mufti, who was chief minister from 2016 to 2018.
Omar Abdullah, chief minister from 2009 to 2015, also called the recommendation “unacceptable”.
“The distribution of newly created assembly constituencies with six going to Jammu and only one to Kashmir is not justified by the data of the 2011 census,” he wrote on Twitter.
The local BJP unit has welcomed the commission’s proposal.
“The process is transparent and the commission has made recommendations only after studying the ground realities in both Jammu as well as Kashmir regions,” Jammu and Kashmir BJP president Ravinder Raina said.
