Jammu, Apr 5: National Conference (NC) Additional General Secretary and former minister Ajay Kumar Sadhotra Saturday expressed deep concern over the ongoing dual governance in sensitive Jammu and Kashmir, terming it as detrimental to the public interest and a blatant disregard for the popular mandate given by the people during the Assembly Elections.
A statement of NC Issued here said that addressing a public meeting at Jindrah in Nagrota, Sadhotra said that democracy is fundamentally a system of governance of the people, by the people, and for the people, saying any deviation from this principle, especially in a region as politically sensitive and strategically significant as Jammu and Kashmir, is bound to create alienation, confusion, and administrative inertia.
“The will of the people must not be undermined. Governance must reflect the aspirations and sentiments of the people, not override them,” he asserted.
NC leader lamented that the concept of dual governance where the elected representatives are ignored and discretionary powers are centralised, leads to authoritarian tendencies that go against the very ethos of democratic functioning. “People have an inalienable right to be the masters of their own destiny. Any attempt to govern them through indirect means, without accountability or transparency, is a betrayal of democratic values,” he added.
