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| Days of taking people of Jammu for a ride over | | Preparing election manifestos | | Neha
JAMMU, Sept 4: Almost all the major political parties in the state have sappointed committees charged with the responsibility of preparing manifestos for the forthcoming Assembly elections. The four major parties are the ruling National Conference (NC) and the Congress and the opposition People's Democratic Party (PDP) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). The reports suggest that the manifesto committees would submit their draft manifestos to their party leadership by the end of this month or latest by October 15.
It is not difficult to imagine what the Kashmir-based parties and the Kashmir-centric parties would promise to their respective constituencies to win them over. They would undoubtedly seek the Kashmiris mandate on purely Kashmir-centric planks. Their election manifestos would also emphasize the need for Indo-Pak talks on J&K and urge the people of Kashmir to defeat the "communal" forces in the state. Their manifestos would also talk about the presence of the army in the state and about the AFSPA and tear into those who, according to them, want the trifurcation of the state into Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh states on the ground that Jammu and Ladakh would not get justice until they obtain the status of statehood. They would advocate the need to keep the state intact, saying division of the state would mean defeat of secularism and pluralism. Their manifestos, in addition, also include a para or two on Jammu and Ladakh to suggest that their approach is inclusive and that the interests of the people of these two regions would be safe if they reject the "communal" forces and vote for the "secular forces" they represent. The manifestos of these parties would also be highly critical of New Delhi and they would hold it responsible for the alienation in Kashmir and promise moon to them.
The Kashmiri parties have been pursuing this line since decades knowing it fully well that this approach has not helped them to establish their strongholds in Jammu province and Ladakh region. In fact, this line of theirs has only created a wide gulf between Jammu and Kashmir and the latter and Ladakh and this became manifestly clear in the just-held Lok Sabha election. The most significant aspect of the last electoral exercise in Jammu & Kashmir was the failure of the Congress to win even a single seat out of three it contested in Jammu and Ladakh.
Why the Congress failed is too well-known. Suffice to say that it had nothing in its manifesto which could influence the electorate of democratic Jammu and Ladakh. It is difficult to say if the Kashmiri parties and the Congress have learned any lesson from their failures in Jammu and Ladakh. In fact, the manner in which their leadership has been conducting itself clearly suggests that there has been no change whatever in their approach towards Jammu and Ladakh. They continue to do lip-service as far as Jammu and Ladakh are concerned. This will not do. They should not take Jammu and Ladakh for granted. They took them for granted in the Lok Sabha election and got decimated. They would meet the same fate in the Assembly elections in case they treated the same old Kashmiri path. People of Jammu and Ladakh are an integral part of mainstream politics. They would vote for only those parties which would practice mainstream politics, advocate the need to maintain unity and integrity of India, vouch for inclusive approach and hold out a solemn commitment that they, if voted to power, will undo the all past wrongs and compensate for the losses they suffered at the hands of the successive Kashmiri-dominated governments in the state during the past more than 65 years. They would do well to remember that the days of taking the people of Jammu and Ladakh for a ride are over. |
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