The time is now more ripe than before, for those few misled and misguided people ,to spread non -violence and all round peace as a mass movement and adopt only constitutional and democratic means to achieve political ends in Jammu and Kashmir. Indian democracy and respecting the constitution in letter and in spirit, is not only recognised the world throughout but envied too, looking to the inherent resilience in the system and the fact that democracy and democratic means were gaining deep roots day in and day out in this country, was no mean achievement of our Republic. After the pleasant and very successful ‘experiment ‘of conducting free, fair and democratic elections for Panchayats and Urban Local Bodies in Jammu and Kashmir late last year, the Government proceeded with conducting elections for Block Development Councils (BDCs). Instead of extending whole hearted support to the move, the first of its nature in Jammu and Kashmir, political parties like the Congress, National Conference and Peoples ‘Democratic Party and some small groups unwittingly chose to boycott the same, repeating the same response to strengthening grass root democratic process as with Panchayat elections. People proved them wrong then, as they have been proved wrong now again, with the conduct of the elections to BDCs which were very successful , satisfactory, smooth , soothing and serene. Electoral college comprising 26629 Sarpanchs and Panchs participated in the elections. Democracy and truth won again , boycott got vanquished yet again.
Can these “boycott” political parties make a count of how many active members of theirs joined the democratic fray as independents, that exercise could give them a sense or a feel of how people preferred and longed for dawning of a fresh era of democratic and transparent form to bring about the necessary changes in socio- political horizon in Jammu and Kashmir. These elections gave 217 seats to independents as Chairpersons, followed by 81 to the BJP and 8 to NPP. It may be recalled that in the fray were only two political parties, the Bhartiya Janta Party and National Panthers Party . Noteworthy is the elections being completely peaceful in Srinagar district where highest voting turnout of 100 per cent was recorded. The turnout was fairly satisfactory in all the districts, making the overall turnout as 98.3 percent.
Another milestone and a major one in respect of the exercise of Panchayats being made effective was achieved on October 25 by elections to the Block Development Councils, which happened as a debut or for the first time in the history of Jammu and Kashmir. Those who were in power in the State for seven decades did not think it feasible to make Panchayats an instrument of deliverance at basic village levels and enjoy financial autonomy and other requisite powers to bring about all round development in their areas of jurisdiction. Now, to make the entire exercise complete and meaningful , another milestone that of formation of District Planning and Development Boards (DPDBs) was to be achieved. With that, the commitment of the Central Government and the State Government that Jammu and Kashmir was to have the three tier Panchayati system would get practically implemented.
While militants were still not reading the writing on the wall and not gauging the changing mood of the general public and were continuing with their dastardly acts of killing innocents, now mostly non- locals and setting their vehicles on fire, the latest one being the third such cowardly but most reprehensible attack on the truckers and dealers in apples in a week , Pakistan on the other hand was, as usual indulging in unprovoked shelling and firing from across the border despite getting regular thrashing in turn from our valiant security forces, democratic process like elections to the BDCs etc going side by side was indicative of a new wave of hope, peace, development and the writ of the Government indicative of meaning business in wiping out militancy and related violent acts but strengthening democratic process in a major way in Jammu and Kashmir.
It should also be of immense interest to note that new thought , optimistic , enthusiastic and progressive, was emerging in the process to replace conventional and hegemonic political class of a few select leaders and parties in Jammu and Kashmir. The emergence of the new generation of politicians could be from the basic grass root levels giving new shape and meaning to political activities and governance thus rendering all confused and perhaps disarrayed conventional leadership irrelevant and stale. Let us all see resurgence of a positive, hope inspiring, honest, people friendly, sincere and performing leadership in the very immediate near future.
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