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| Kashmiris will again defeat Hurriyat's sinister agenda | | Call for poll boycott | | Neha
JAMMU, Oct 30: Tehrik-e-Hurriyat led by fanatic and pro-Pakistan Syed Ali Shah Geelani had on Wednesday again called for boycott of the Assembly elections in Jammu & Kashmir. He said there was "no justification" of holding elections when the flood-affected people of the state are "struggling for their survival". He termed the electoral exercises in the state as "election drama" and urged people to boycott the Assembly elections.
His atrocious call for poll boycott will again be rejected by the people. There should be no doubt about it. The people of Jammu and Ladakh have never ever boycotted elections. They hate such calls and participate in elections in large numbers and with great enthusiasm. Not only the people of Jammu and Ladakh, but the people of Kashmir have also by and large rejected calls for poll boycott and taken part in all the electoral exercises so that they could elect persons through whom they wanted themselves to represented in the assembly, the highest law-making body in the state.
It is important to note that notwithstanding the separatist politics, people's participation in democratic politics has substantially increased, particular since 2002, when the people of the Valley for the first time gave a fractured mandate. In 2002, the NC lost the election miserably and the newly-founded PDP emerged as the second largest party in the Kashmir Valley and formed coalition government with the Congress, the Panthers Party, the CPI-M and a few independent MLAs. The people's participation was quite satisfactory, despite the boycott call given by separatists. They participated ignoring the threat to their life and limb. Very significantly, the people's participation was voluntary. It indicated their desire to elect a government of their own choice. The story was no different in the 2008 assembly elections. The Kashmiri Muslims again rebuffed the separatists by refusing to follow their anti-democratic diktat and participated in the election in large number, thus showing the separatists their rightful place. Their desire to take part in the election was once again reflected in the 2011 panchayat elections. Almost 80 per cent of the voters in Kashmir participated in the panchayat elections. This was a big slap on the face of the separatists and it constituted a victory of the Indian political system.
It is the Kashmiri Muslims' big participation in the electoral exercises -- coupled with the emergence of competitive politics -- that has created a noble situation in the Valley. The very fact that even separatist Sajjad Lone contested the Lok Sabha election in 2009 should clinch the whole issue and establish that there is a desire in the Valley to elect a government that delivers and meets the people's socio-economic aspirations. The plus point is that the parties like the PDP have been working overtime to mobilize the Kashmiris to participate in the election. But more than that, the "unpopular" NC, which had boycotted the 1996 Lok Sabha election and wanted the Election Commission to postpone the assembly election for a few months, has declared that it would field candidates in all the 87 assembly constituencies further suggests that the desire of the people to occupy the democratic space is intense.
If the prevailing political environment in the Valley and the manner in which political actors are working in the Valley is any indication, then it can be said that the participation of the people in the assembly election would be impressive. The fact is that the separatists are destined to face another humiliation. |
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