Sikh body announces boycott of regional and national political parties
Sep 23, 2023
SRINAGAR: All Parties Sikh Coordination Committee Chairman Jagmohan Singh Raina on Saturday said they have decided to boycott the regional and national political parties and will search for ideal candidates from the community for the upcoming elections in Jammu and Kashmir.
"As the elections are round the corner we at APSCC have decided to change the strategy and we will no longer support candidates of any party whatsoever," Rania said while addressing a press conference.
He said a mass contact programme would be carried out across the length and breadth of the J&K and through this exercise they will find out potential candidates with the first preference being the local body elections that can be announced at any point of time.
"Instead of beating around the bush we will come up with candidates among the community. This will ensure that the power lies with the community itself and it would not be used as a vote bank furthermore," Raina said.
He said they will seek the support of the majority community for the candidates picked up by them.
Raina said the successive governments of Jammu & Kashmir and even the central government resolved the issues of the Sikh community despite the fact that the community is a minority community.
"Over the last many decades we have been meeting the people at helm with legitimate demands of the Sikh community. Chief Ministers of the erstwhile Jammu & Kashmir state and Governors were contacted with the hope that there would be light at the end which was not to be. Every time our issues were given a cold shoulder with the people at the helm being so arrogant and they were not ready to listen to our genuine demands leave alone finding a solution to the problems being confronted by the community members," he said.
Raina said packages meant for minorities that did not migrate were manipulated and these were changed for the benefit of the favourite minority.
Raina said the central government and union territory administration has been serious towards establishment and reshaping of Waqf Board, Mata Vaishnodevi Shrine Board, Amarnath Yatra but no seriousness is being shown in the implementation of Gurdwara Endowment Act.
"Despite the intervention of Lieutenant Governor, Manoj Sinha, the election of Jammu & Kashmir Gurdwara Parbandhak Board could not be conducted," he said.On the ongoing India-Canada row, Raina said it was "a political gimmick" to get votes in the elections.
"A political scenario is being created like Kashmir and now a Khalistan scenario is being created," he said.
