Rustam
JAMMU, Apr 25: The people of Anantnag Parliamentary constituency deserve bouquets for the manner in which they participated in the electoral exercise, held on Thursday. They deserve congratulations all the more because they reposed confidence in the Indian political system, as also because their participation this time in the election process was more as compared with their participation in the similar exercise five years ago. This time, 28 per cent of the total voters voted to elect a representative of their choice. In 2009, the percentage of voters who exercised their franchise was 26.9. In other words, there was a jump of 1.1 per cent. It may not appear significant on the face of it, but all the Kashmir-watchers would vouch for the fact that this jump was quite appreciable when viewed in the context of the prevailing political environment in the whole of Kashmir valley.
The political environment was extremely bad with the extremists and anti-establishment and anti-state mercenaries and anti-state actors like Syed Ali Shah Geelani, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, Yasin Malik, Shabir Ahmad Shah and who not doing their best to vitiate the atmosphere and virtually threatening the Kashmiris that they would be taught a lesson in case THEY disobeyed their anti-India diktats and participate in the election. Not only the extremists and pro-Pakistan elements, even the ruling coalition comprising the National Conference and the Congress, in the words of the People's Democratic Party leaders like Mufti Mohammad Sayeed and Mehbooba Mufti, worked for the low voter turnout. The Muftis not once but on several occasions publicly stated and restated that the ruling coalition was working overtime to make the militants-sponsored-boycott call a success opining that the low voter turnout would help the "unpopular and anti-people" NC-Congress coalition candidates and go against the PDP candidates seeking election to the Lok Sabha.
To be more precise, the extremists and the ruling coalition, according to the PDP, did all that they could to ensure poll boycott or low voter turnout, and still more than 25 per cent voters came out of their houses facing all odds to express their confidence in the ongoing election process in the country. Hats off to them. |
