The violence that visited election to the Parliamentary seat in Srinagar warrants that authorities as well as political parties should make an objective study and instead of trying to take political mileage out of the unfortunate circumstances would look at things constructively. Violence has been going on in the State since 1990. At the same time election process has also been going on simultaneously. It means that different parties that have been at the helm of affairs during past two decades and half have been steering through extraordinary conditions in the State. They are all conversant with what difficulties are there especially when elections either to the Assembly or to the Parliament are in the offing. As such it is unbecoming on the part of any political party that has stakes to make violence caused by sponsored militants a stick to beat the opposition with. That is against the on-ground situation in Kashmir.
There is definitely full justification for the Election Commission to announce postponement of by-election to the Anantnag Parliamentary seat. It is a recognized practice that prior to the holding of elections to Parliamentary seat the Chief Election Commissioner needs to have clearance on law and order situation of the state/district where election is supposed to be held. In the case of by-election to the Anantnag Parliamentary seat, the State Government suggested to the EC to postpone it till May and the reasons are sound. The State Government’s report plus the report of the EC through its own sources and that of the Chief Electoral Officer of J&K besides the reports of the Police administration, there has been clear message for the EC to postpone elections in Anantnag.
No responsible Government can take precipitate risks without looking at all dimensions of the issue. Srinagar by-polls recorded just 7.6 per cent which as we know is the lowest ever polling figure in the State history of elections. It has to be remembered that there is moral responsibility on the Government and the society that claims to be running along democratic lines that turnout for the polls should be sizeable. We shall be accountable at various forums if we are not able to show that a good number of voters turned up to cast their votes. Secondly, we have seen unprecedented violence on the polling day. Therefore it becomes necessary to take into account the situation of violence if it recurred during Anantnag polls. The Government is duty bound not to let precious lives be destroyed or Government property vandalized. In view of that apprehension, the wise thing to do was to decide to post pone the polling. It is not correct to say that what wonders will happen during the intervening two or three weeks. The point is first to allow the storm settle down and good sense prevail at least in as many people as possible. Secondly, the Government needs time to assess where its security bandobust went wrong and needs time to rectify it. Therefore there is reason in postponing the election.
However, at the same time, we would insist that the Government should set up an inquiry why large scale violence happened in Kashmir during the polling for the parliamentary seat. An odd incident does happen on polling day everywhere but the scale and dimension of violence in Srinagar by-election was unprecedented.
May be there were some shortfalls in the security preparations. Or that there was a deep seated conspiracy which the sleuths failed to detect and thwart. It has to be brought to the notice of the public what were the lacunae in the process. All these questions are of significance and have to be answered.
It has also to be remembered that South Kashmir, especially the districts of Anantnag, Pulwama and Kulgam have been the epicenter of accelerated militancy since some time in the past. Burhan Wani episode also happened in South Kashmir and this region has seen much of disturbance and violence. Consequently Anantnag by-election to the Parliamentary seat is very sensitive and the Government has to deal it in right manner. There are no two opinions that militants have dug in these districts and they have also infiltrated into the civil society either through intimidation or through other means. We have seen that nearly forty school buildings were torched during the unrest in last six months and even now torching of schools in some of the towns in these districts has not stopped.
Taking all these aspects into consideration the State Government basing its conclusions on the intelligence and police reports and also the reports from administrative chapters had rightly recommended to postpone the elections in Anantnag. Elections will be held sooner or later as there is no doubt about it. But the respite can give opportunity to the elected members of the Assembly to revive contacts in their respective constituencies and exert themselves as they deem fit to bring about cooling effect among the people. After all ours is a democracy and we have the need to deal with the people who have sentiments and emotions which cannot be and should not be bulldozed blindly? People have to be made to understand whether violence is going to give them any benefit or whether it is going to destroy the future of the kids. The elected representatives are sane enough to think of the future of the State.
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