From Gandhi Nagar in Jammu to Habba Kadal in Kashmir, the J&K Delimitation Commission’s proposal to delete the names of 19 Assembly constituencies, including those with historically important names, has infuriated the regional leaders in the Union Territory (UT), who described it as “an assault on J&K’s history”.
Shameema Firdous, a three–time MLA from Srinagar’s Habba Kadal constituency, said she was anguished to see the name of Habba Kadal removed in the Commission draft proposal and merged into three other constituencies.
“It’s a fact that Habba Khatoon was a revered queen and poetess from Kashmir, and wife of Kashmiri king Yousuf Shah Chak. The constituency was named after her. She represented Kashmir’s culture, tradition and literature. Removing her name is an open assault on our history and an attempt to decimate our collective sense of past. It seems there is a move to take our new generation away from the icons of Kashmir by renaming these constituencies,” Ms. Firdous told T he Hindu.
