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| Victory of democracy in Kashmir | | Bhat accepts defeat, says not sure if people will boycott polls | | Neha
JAMMU, Apr 6: The people of Kashmir need to be hailed. The reason is that they are likely to vote in the upcoming Lok Sabha election in large numbers to elect representatives of their own choice braving all odds, including threat to their life and limb. The 16th Lok Sabha elections to six parliamentary constituencies in Jammu & Kashmir will be held in five-phases from April 10 to May 17.
Reports emanating from different parts of the Valley clearly suggest that bulk of the Kashmiri electorate wishes to take part in the electoral exercise on the D-day. This time they have several choices. The NC, in collaboration with its ally Congress, is in the fray. The opposition PDP, the Aam Aadmi Party, the party of Engineer Rashid and a front of a few smaller political groups, including the one-MLA CPI-M, are also there in the electoral arena. In fact, the Kashmiri electorate has a minimum of five choices and it will become clear only on May 16 who succeeded in winning over it. Political observers and Kashmir-watchers are, however, of the view that the contest would primarily be between the NC and its arch-political rival PDP. They are also of the view that the PDP is having an upper hand in two of the three Lok Sabha constituencies from where PDP president Mehbooba Mufti and former Deputy Chief Minister and party ideologue Muzzaffar Hussain Beig are contesting the election. "Mufti and Beig might emerge victorious," they are opining after feeling the people's pulse. Significantly, they are also suggesting that it would not be a "cakewalk" for the NC president and Union Minister Farooq Abdullah, who is contesting from the Srinagar Parliamentary constituency. "His mahachor remark against the Kashmiris - apart from several other facotors -- is working against him in particular," political observers are suggesting. "The NC is banking on low turn out" is yet another suggestion from keen Kashmir-watchers.
The fact of the matter is that the PDP is standing on a strong wicket and the NC is working very, very hard to retain control over the all the three constituencies which it captured in 2009 defeating the PDP. The reasons for the rise of the PDP and decline of the NC in the Valley are obvious. The NC is a ruling party both at the centre and in the state and it has not come up to the expectations of the people.
This is the general belief. The PDP has been exploiting the distrust between the people and the NC-led coalition government to its advantage and becoming more and more stronger with each passing day. The NC leadership is fully aware of the prevailing political environment in the Valley and, hence, its charge against the PDP that the Muftis and the BJP have entered into some kind of pact and both of them are trying to destabilize the state government. However, what has added to the difficulties of the NC all the more in the Valley is the report that the people in the Valley are averse to the idea of boycotting the election. Separatists of all hues in the Valley, including Syed Ali Shah Geelani, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, Yasin Malik and Shabbir Ahmad Shah, have been trying their level best to persuade the common Kashmiris to boycott the election, but not getting the kind of response they want. Notwithstanding the fact that the law and order authorities are keeping a close watch on the activities of
these separatists, including their activities aimed at convincing the Kashmiri electorate of the importance of election boycott, bulk of Kashmiri people is not obliging them. That the Kashmiri electorate has its own view on the electoral exercise can be seen from what former chairman of All-Party Hurriyat Conference Abdul Gani Bhat on Saturday said. "There is no guarantee that people (of Kashmir) would boycott the upcoming general elections. I can only vouch for the people of Kashmir what side they support when it comes to a cricket match but am not sure on which side they are about anything else...It is up to the people to decide whether to cast their vote or not. People of Kashmir are mature enough to decide whether to vote or not...The mainstream politicians of the State have always fooled people in the name of road, water and electricity," Bhat reportedly after meeting the Pakistan High Commissioner to India Abdul Basit in Delhi. And the meaning of what he said was more than clear. In fact, his statement suggested that the Kashmiri separatist leadership has accepted the defeat. It is a good development that needs to be appreciated by one and all. |
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