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| Kashmir in Lok Sabha elections | | |
Early Times Report
JAMMU, May 5: The Kashmir-based political parties are not contesting elections on the developmental and governance issues. They have been using the electoral exercise as an opportunity to express their respective views on the political status of Kashmir and holding out promises that they would do this or that if their candidates are elected to the Lok Sabha. The National Conference, which has been ruling the state in alliance with the Congress since January 5, 2009, has been attacking the PDP and accusing it of hobnobbing with the BJP's PM candidate Narendra Modi to dilute Article 370 and undermine the autonomous status of Jammu and Kashmir. It has been urging the Kashmiris not to vote for the PDP candidates saying a vote for the PDP will be a vote for Narendra Modi and against the state's special status. On the other hand, it is seeking the people's mandate holding out a promise that it will work for an autonomous status for Kashmir and Jammu and Ladakh will have no other option but to endorse its stand on Jammu and Kashmir. The NC, like PDP, Congress, CPI-M and similar other outfits in Kashmir, doesn't consider Jammu and Kashmir a settled issue.
The PDP has been saying that it is not contesting election to win it and enjoy power; it has been contesting the election to win it and send to the Lok Sabha members who would take up the Kashmir issue in the Parliament in a big way. The PDP MPs will engage with all the political parties and evolve a broader consensus on Kashmir. It has been accusing the NC of betraying the Kashmiris' cause for the sake of power and pelf, as also accusing it of not doing anything to get the Kashmir issue resolved to the satisfaction of the people of Kashmir. Kashmir and its solution are the two major election planks of the PDP. The CPI-M has been doing the same. Kashmir, Kashmir and Kashmir is its sole election plank. It, like the NC and similar other Kashmir-based and Valley-centric outfits, has no place whatsoever for Jammu and Ladakh in its scheme of things and it, like all of them, considers Jammu and Ladakh no more than colonies of Kashmir where the people have no other option but to dance to the Kashmiris' tunes and serve them and suffer under their oppressive rule.
The Congress, which claims that it is a national organization, has been saying that it alone is capable of resolving the Kashmir issue to the satisfaction of the people of Kashmir and if the people of Kashmir want the Kashmir issue to be resolved, they have no other option but to elect the coalition candidates to the Lok Sabha. "The Congress is committed to upholding and strengthening the special status of Jammu and Kashmir and the party will oppose every small or big move to dilute Article 370. Some forces (PDP and BJP) are thinking of weakening or eroding this Article are inimical to peace and tranquility in the state. After accession Article 370 has proved a vital bridge between India and Jammu and Kashmir. The BJP's policy of grabbing land in the state to facilitate settlement of communal forces will not be permitted and not an inch of land of the state will be given or provided to such forces. The Congress in the interest of the nation will vehemently fight abrogation move in and outside the Parliament. It will resolve the Kashmir issue," it has been repeatedly saying in Kashmir.
It is indeed a matter of grave concern that the Kashmir based parties, instead of focusing on the developmental issues and issues of governance, are taking recourse to emotive and divisive issue. The kind of politics they are playing have only further widened the already rather wide gulf between Kashmir and the rest of the country. The worst aspect of the whole situation is the indifferent attitude of New Delhi to what the Kashmiri leaders have been doing in Kashmir to vitiate the election scene. Besides, neither the State Governor nor the Election Commission doing anything to take care of those who have been indulging in politics of separatism. |
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