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| Make hay while the sun shines | | | Nirbhay Jammual
While the members of the election commission continue to wrangle over the procedure the commission has adopted by inviting political leaders for discussion the security situation in Jammu and Kashmir before debating the same issue with the Defence Secretary people and political leaders in the state fear that if the poll was held by the beginning of November the polling percentage was bound to be very poor.Poor polling percentage could be a slur on the face of those speaking volumes about healthy democratic traditions in the Kashmir valley.There are indications that polling percentage could be witnessed in Poonch,Rajouri and Doda districts also.
In the given situation will it be feasible for the Election Commission and the central Government to hold the Assembly election by the due date ?Opinion on this issue varies from party to party and from one region to the other.Among those political parties that support the poll by the beginning of November the BJP is on the top.Its leaders are vocal while opposing any postponement of the election.The Panthers Party is the other party that is not in favour of deferring the election.The Congress is trying to project itself as a votary for timely election.But inside reports indicate that majority of Congress leaders do prefer postponement of the election so that it gets some beathing time for diluting the anger of people in the Jammu region against it.People do blame the Azad led Government for having engineered revocation of the land order.Though several congress leaders in Jammu extended their indirect support to the Sangarsh Samiti but it took time for the leaders to come out in defense of the Samiti's stand on the land row.
Since the PDP has lost its ground in the Jammu region and has suffered erosion in its strength in the Kashmir valley owing to its dubious role in kicking up the land row the party leaders would prefer elections to be postponed.However,outwardly its leadership has preferred to remain noncommittal on the issue.Its leaders fear that if they favour postponement of the poll it would be treated as the first sign of their eroded strength.The National Conference too had been sandwiched between the protagonists of land restoration and those opposing it but the last minute role played by the party patron,Dr Farooq Abdullah,is said to have saved the situation for the party in he Jammu region.It is not as untouchable as the PDP is.
The reason for the BJP and the Panthers Party for favouring holding of the poll on due date is not difficult to fathom.They think that their role during the two-month long agitation in Jammu has facilitated them to assume added political weight.It is a different thing that both these organisations had been eclipsed,if not sidelined,by the Sangarsh Samiti.If the BJP associated itself with the Samiti the Panthers Party played its role of organising chain hunger strikes and agitation on its own.It is hence understandable that both these organisations do not want to see the level of peoples' anger against the Congress,the National Conference and the PDP recede the way he water level in Chenab or Tawi recedes after the monsoon.The two believe in the philosophy of making hay while the sun shines. |
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