From The Editor / The Legitimate
On Monday, the main two political parties of Jammu and Kashmir National Conference and Peoples Democratic Party observed Martyr’s Day at their official headquarters. The parties had sought permission to visit the Marty’s graveyard at old city Srinagar, however, the permission was denied by the authorities. If the PDP is to be believed, the authorities had threatened the party leaders of lodging FIR’s if they violate the restrictions and visit the graveyard. Until a few years back, July 13 Marty’s Day was officially observed in erstwhile Jammu and Kashmir state.
Earlier, a day before the senior BJP leader and Kashmir Incharge Ram Madhav in Srinagar blamed the local political parties for the stalled political activities in Union Territory. He said these parties are still mourning the departure of article 370, which according to him was only fomenting separatism and militancy in the valley.
Madhav urged all the political dispensations in Kashmir to begin with political activities and made it clear to them that Article 370 will not be restored at any cost. And the political parties in Kashmir must move ahead without carrying its baggage. The situation in Kashmir is grim. The political workers are the soft target and a week back Wasim Bari-BJP district president in Bandipora along with his father and brother were killed by militants. Before him in June Congress leader Ajay Pandita was also killed in South Kashmir.
To halt the onslaught of political workers and ensure no more killings take place, it is believed that local political parties must resume their activities. The absence of a political system is alienating the masses on ground. No democracy can ever survive merely on administrative structures. The dissent, and the elected regimes are the soul of any democracy. Kashmir is presently missing it. While the former Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti is still under detention at home, the other released leaders including the patron of National Conference Dr. Farooq Abdullah is missing from the scene. He doesn’t issue any statements. His son and former chief minister Omar Abdullah is even selectively speaking on twitter.
The recently formed Apni party seems to have lost its relevance and doesn’t have any more mass appeal. The prevailing situation in Kashmir looks fixed and observers are perplexed as how the region would come out of this political morass.
If New Delhi thinks, the local political parties would ever begin with political activities in the given arrangement, they must introspect and revisit their policy. While the decision of Article 370 lies in the top court of the country and its abrogation by Union Government is still being heard. So any statement from the BJP at this point of time may not augur well and it must also leave the issue to the top court for its final decision. But at the same time, the local political parties need some assurances, support and the good will from Delhi.
Contesting elections in Jammu and Kashmir is altogether a different experience unlike in other parts of the country. In the present scheme of things, the space for the electoral exercise apparently looks squeezed. And it is up to New Delhi how it again explores it and infuses it with the fresh air of democracy.
Delaying elections can only further vitiate the situation and strengthen the alienation among people. So New Delhi must shun the rigid path and what it displayed a tough posturing since 2014 towards the local political dispensations and take them into confidence for the new political beginning in Kashmir.
