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| Peoples Democratic Party VS National Conference | | Kashmir's Political Scene -- II | | Early Times Report
Jammu, Jan 19: The PDP again contested the assembly elections in 2008. It improved its tally from 19 in 2002 to 21 in 2008. It maintained its position in the Valley and captured two seats in Jammu province's Rajouri-Poonch belt. Ladakh again disappointed it. The elections demonstrated that the PDP, which had ruled the state for three years, had not lost it support-base in Kashmir. But it also indicated that it had not been able to expand it either. This was a matter of concern for the party bigwigs. However, the election results were a no solace for the NC whose tally remained the same as in 2002 (28). And, this, despite the fact that it had remained in opposition for full six years. That it could not improve its tally was a proof that it had not played the role of an effective and responsible opposition and that it had lost its past charisma and sheen. In other words, the performance of the PDP in the 2008 elections was much better as compared to the NC. The election results once again indicated urban-rural divide. The PDP had won mostly in the rural areas and the NC in urban.
But the today's Kashmir's political scene has changed to a considerable extent. The PDP has gained substantially during the past three years in Kashmir because it remained active throughout raking up issues of governance and highlighting the people's problems in and outside the legislature, and even during the winter months. It has been able to take along people of Kashmir and establish that it identified itself with them when in power and it identified itself more with them when out of power.
The NC, which has been ruling the state, courtesy the week and meek Congress leadership, since January 2009, has further lost its political space in the Valley because of its reckless actions and failure to provide people-centric, corruption-free, responsive, accountable and transparent administration. It has failed to deliver on any front. So much so, the Transparency International, a NGO of repute, dismissed the state as the most corrupt state in India. Even the interlocutors like Dileep Padgaonkar have severely criticized the NC-led dispensation, virtually saying there is complete disconnect between the ruler and the ruled. In 2010, even the Cabinet Committee on Security, which is headed by the Prime Minister, had censured the Chief Minister and held him responsible for what it called "trust deficit" and "governance deficit".
The Chief Minister on January 5, when he started his second inning after completing three years in office, boasted that his government had done this and that and asserted that he had achieved much. He has every right to say whatever he wants. But, ultimately, it is the people who are the final judges. The ground position in the Kashmir Valley is that the people there are not at all happy with the NC and its leadership. They are accusing the NC leadership of indulging in political corruption with some of them even charging the NC president and the Chief Minister with causing death of their own loyalist Sayeed Mohammad Yousuf.
If one goes by the mood of people in Kashmir, then one can predict the NC's comprehensive defeat in the next assembly elections and the PDP's massive victory. The discontent in Kashmir is widespread. However, the condition is that the PDP will have to make sure that it remains active and that it exposes the failures and weaknesses of the ruling coalition. It just cannot afford to remain complacent. It's politics; things can take any twist anytime. (Concluded)
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