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| Politicians searching lost ground | | | Early Times Reporter
Jammu | Sep 2
The agitation is off, elections are “round the corner” and now it is over to politics –but where is the plot?
One of the major fallouts of agitation on Shri Amarnath Shrine land controversy has been on the mainstream political discourse both in Jammu as well as in Kashmir region. Three months back the dominant buzz across the state was about assembly elections which were then seen as just round the corner. After three months anyone talking about the elections is perceived as someone being out of place.
While in Jammu the parties with Kashmir or New Delhi origin –having little sense of Jammu pulse –have lost most of the political ground when the region united on the shrine land issue, in Kashmir Valley there is hardly any space left for the mainstream politics.
It will be a tough time for the competitive politics to resume its normal course. Unlike Kashmir, Jammu region has a truly competitive mainstream politics with Congress, National Conference, BJP and the newly emerging Panthers Party as main players. Bahujan Samaj Party is also seen making significant inroads in Dalit pockets of the region. Just ahead of the eruption of Amarnath shrine land controversy, the political mainland of Jammu was ripe for the electoral politics. Elections were just three months away but the campaign designs had already been put in place by the parties. Two months of agitation has washed away whatever the parties had tried to build up not only in recent few months but over past five years. Now at this stage the lines of ideology stand blurred between the arch rivals. For two months all of them, out of compulsion or will, had become more or less constituent parts of the Sangharsh Samiti –condemning their own parties and criticizing their own charters.
The BJP an essential constituent of the Sangharsh Samiti was initially seen as the eventual beneficiary of the agitation as it was the Congress government accused of withdrawing the land transfer order. Former Chief Minister and Congress’ ‘hope’ in Jammu and Kashmir, Ghulam Nabi Azad was seen in Jammu only twice in two months –on July 17, when he addressed a public meeting at a border township and then on August 10 as part of the all-party delegation constituted by the Prime Minister to find out a solution for the crises. Azad’s being away from the scene all these of crises not only brought down but also smashed up the morale of local Congress leaders. During initial days of agitation, the local Congress leaders tried to defend their government’s decision but as the days passed off and the agitation gathered momentum, they had to endorse every thing what the Sangharsh Samiti had to say.
No other party or leader would have addressed as many press conferences as Congress leaders did address all these months. Interestingly, the agenda of their press conferences and statements issued to media always remained endorsing the day to day stand of Sangharsh Samiti. When Samiti called for the removal of Governor NN Vohra, the local Congress jumped into the fray as main votary of the demand. Veterans like Dr Karan Singh, the scion of Dogra dynasty, who otherwise visits Jammu hardly once a year, wrote to the Prime Minister seeking removal of the Governor.
Former MLAs, sitting MLCs and other office bearers of the Congress would often walk into the office of Sangharsh Samiti to reiterate their support even as the party at national level frequently equated the Jammu agitation “as dangerous” as separatist movement in Kashmir. Prominent local leader and MLA till recently, Raman Bhalla courted arrest on August 21 as a part of Sangharsh Samiti plan. However, the veteran Mangat Ram Sharma still could not escape the wrath. He had to take a pillion ride with a cop to reach home safely when a strong mob attacked his vehicle in the city.
In Jammu region, National Conference has much of its presence in the rural areas than the urban space. Thus NC leaders played little smart. They left their plush winter capital residence to fan out in their respective constituencies. Omar Abdullah’s speech in the Parliament on, July 22, had given a new direction to the Jammu agitation when a youth committed suicide allegedly enraged over Omar’s statement. However, father Farooq made quite a good effort to save the situation. After maintaining a much required silence for a couple of weeks, Farooq played quite a balancing act between Kashmir and Jammu. Leaving the Kashmir field to Omar, who joined chorus with separatist, Farooq went on justify demand of Sangharsh Samiti and called for restoration of land to the Shrine Board. When the agreement is inked between Samiti and Government, Farooq turned up as the only Kashmiri leaders to give a “thumbs up”.
Now when the agitation has been called off, the next battle is for the forthcoming elections and the task before political parties is to redraw their constituency agenda. |
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