Jammu And Kashmir Elections: Irony In itself
By Kashoo Tawseef
20 December, 2014
Countercurrents.org
Crorepatis, people facing criminal charges and school dropouts contesting
These days it is all about elections in Jammu and Kashmir with each party claiming victory and ready to make next government on its own refuting claims of joining the coalition and posturing to prefer to be in opposition and others are dreaming to become the Chief Minister of the unfortunate state. With good participation of people which analysts contributed to vote for local governance and not to the larger issue of Kashmir, it seems that no party will emerge as victorious enough to make the number required to form government. It appears there will be hung assembly and some one has to join hands with other party to make the government, it remains to be seen whether those who said we will not join hands with parties like BJP and will do that in the interest of power or for the betterment of state.
Providentially or unfortunately Indian media gave such hype to these elections as if they won the war against the voices of alienation in Jammu and Kashmir and wrongly sending out message as if it was vote for referendum. Every channel from NDTV to Telugu Channel TV9 is sending out their crews from New Delhi to cover these elections as they don’t want to miss the chance to add to the nuisance of elections in Jammu and Kashmir. Local media is not alien to this phenomenon as advertisements appear on almost every page and every day of their publication they seem to be happy as this gives them chance to recover their finances as they too suffered heavy losses with floods.
It was nice to listen to the speeches of National Conference during their election rallies and reading their election manifesto things they never mentioned while in power. While in power they failed to deliver justice to the families of victims in 2010 killings of youths, they failed to get hold of perpetrators in “fake encounters”, they failed to revoke AFSPA, they failed to deliver robust response to floods, and their Autonomy resolution is still catching dust. Now they blame other parties and New Delhi for all their failures. My humble question to them what made you morally stay in power if you couldn’t do anything with all these above mentioned issues, why didn’t you left the government in the interest of people of Jammu and Kashmir? Sorry to say: you choose power over people.
Ironically, another regional party Peoples Democratic Party welcomed candidates from other parties including ruling National Conference. One wonders, how that can help them in delivering good governance, what they claim, if they(candidates from NC etc) couldn’t perform while in power in last six years and how they turn into statesman once they joined PDP. Where were PDP parliamentary candidates during floods, I guess they too were the representatives of people and had the moral responsibility to help people as they were in power in New Delhi, why didn’t they mobilise Indian parliament to at least allow international aid to the flood victims. My humble question to them, why you preferred elections over floods, why you couldn’t wait to defer elections for few months and let people recover from the devastation of floods. Sorry to say: you were desperate for power and you choose elections over the victims of flood.
Moreover national party like Bharatiya Janata Party nominated candidates with almost no locus-standi in electoral system of the state. They kept changing their statements when and where it suits them to the extent that they are willing to join hands with ex-separatists. Their double standard was exposed when in parliamentary elections they kept beating their drums on Article-370 and in assembly elections they didn’t mention it. Not even in their election campaign, realising the consequences to the extend one of their candidate threatened to take up gun if Article-370 was touched. They talk about the baggage that regional parties are carrying and if you look at the baggage of Bharatiya Janata Party then the list is unending not to mention Babri Masjid and Gujrat. My humble question to them what made you change stand from parliamentary election to assembly election? Is it power first and rest comes later be that compromising on your so called principle slogans. Sorry to say: you thought that this is one in life time chance to grab the power in state.
Another national party, Indian National Congress was in power for almost more than a decade. Why they eroded the constitution of the state of Jammu and Kashmir, why they didn’t strengthen Article 370. Why they didn’t help their coalition partner in revoking AFSPA. My humble question to them, where was the development for a decade that you ruled the state. Sorry to say: is it that you will do any better if they were to given one more decade to rule.
Other new born parties or people who recently embraced mainstream politics are also in the fray. My question to them is how can you sell your conscious for power while being in separatists politics for more than two decades and making innocent people come on the streets and take bullets from the so called safe guards of Indian democracy and now all of a sudden those who killed your fellow men are you big brothers. My humble question to you, is blood of innocent Kashmiri cheaper to do politics over it?
Furthermore, The All Parties Hurriyat Conference, according to a foreign journalist, is a camp of twenty different mouths with twenty different voices. It is high time for them to retrospect and rethink about their strategy so that they don’t end up doing such actions which will endorse Indian stand on elections. What has election boycott contributed to the larger cause of Kashmir and to the sufferings of people of Jammu and Kashmir? How much they did to mobilise the public opinion and what did they do to find solution to the common problems while keeping the moment going. My humble question to you, how long will you let people suffer with your flawed policies without having any direction to the moment?
Lastly, if one looks at the election aftermath in Jammu and Kashmir it is pitiable. Just to mention few examples the stadium from where Bharatiya Janata Party and Peoples Democratic Party hold rallies has been left vandalized and now the state cricket association has no funds to repair it. On such specific rally days, people were left hostages as there was a complete siege in the city and it was curfew like situation. One wonders if this so called government for the people then why to keep people imprisoned. It is this Irony that common masses of the Jammu and Kashmir suffer and are being exploited for fake promises and fake representations.
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