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| PDP all out to puncture NC balloon | | Struggle for power | | Neha
JAMMU, Feb 10: One may question the PDP for its insistence on self-rule and supra-state measures on the ground that these have the potential of unsettling the settled in Jammu & Kashmir. One can also surely question its concept of sub-regions as it has the potential of dividing the society and Jammu province on communal lines. But one would surely at once endorse its stand on the ruling NC and its call for uprooting or dislodging what it calls the NC-led corrupt dispensation. This is what patron of the PDP and former Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed said on Sunday at Kathua while addressing a public meeting.
"People (must support PDP) in the upcoming polls to uproot the 'corrupt dispensation' headed by NC, and set up a new system of justice and equality in Jammu & Kashmir. With the support of the people, PDP is committed to establish a corruption-free, transparent and accountable system of governance in the state so as to ensure that every individual would get equal opportunity of growth," he said, and added that "since its formation the National Conference-Congress government had systematically dismantled democratic institutions in the state thus depriving people of their democratic rights". "The state's democratic institutions had become the first causalty of the wrong policies being propagated by the present dispensation during its over five years' tenure," he said, adding that the present dispensation has failed the people of the state on all fronts. He did make a point when he said that "panchayat elections in the state were held in 2011, but for the past three years nothing has been done to make panchayats vibrant in Jammu & Kashmir and that the government started taking some cosmetic steps at its fag end only to befool the people". Indeed, what Mufti said was correct.
Mufti was also correct when he charged the ruling NC with creating hurdles in the elections of the Block Development Councils (BDCs) and District Development Councils (DDCs) and accused it of not doing anything to decentralize powers at the grassroots level. "This regime had conducted Panchayati elections only to get grants which were blocked by the Centre for not conducting Panchayati elections in the State. Trickling down powers at village level to strengthen grassroot democracy was never aim of this regime...The way this government created hurdles in the elections of the Block Development Councils (BDCs) and District Development Councils (DDCs) is a clear indication that regime is not interested to decentralize powers," he said, and very rightly. That Mufti made a very valid point could be seen from the fact that the present regime did not hold elections to the Municipal Corporations and Municipal Committees.
What Mufti said at Kathua could be verified from what the NC did from day one. The case in point is the subversion of democracy in the state between 1947 and 1953. This was the period when Sheikh Abdullah regime rigged the 1951 elections on wholesale, persecuted his own close associates and invoked section 75 of the Jammu & Kashmir Constitutional Act of 1939 to muzzle the press and undermine the institution of judiciary. It was he who used the highly atrocious Jammu & Kashmir Press and Publication Act of 1932 to muzzle the press. The fact of the matter is that Sheikh Abdullah put down dissent with a heavy hand and his successors are doing the same thing to remain in power and enjoy loaves and fishes.
It's not just the PDP which has been describing the NC as anti-people, anti-democratic and power hungry. The BJP, JKNPP and similar other formations are also denouncing the present dispensation as anti-people, anti-democratic and divisive. It's no wonder then that the NC has been losing its political space to other parties since 2002. In 1996, the NC had won 57 out of 87 seats, but in 2002 it could win only 26 seats, less than 50 per cent of its 1996 tally. In 2008, the NC's position also remained unchanged, despite the fact 2002 and 2008. That it couldn't improve its position in the 2008 Assembly elections should establish that the bulk of population in the state has lost faith in the NC and if the prevailing situation is any indication, then it can be said that the tally of the NC this time would be much lower. It may not win even 20 seats. The NC leadership knows it and that's the reason it is trying its level best to forge a pre-poll alliance with the Congress, which is no less unpopular. |
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