Dr Ganesh Malhotra
Jammu and Kashmir became politically part of India with the signing of Instrument of Accession by legitimate ruler of J&K Maharaja Hari Singh. But after this conspiracies started to make the way for unceremonious exit of Maharaja of J&K from state. The power got transferred to unelected persons because they were favourites of then power holders at top level. But these unelected ones were representing only one region and political vacuum in other two regions. This continued till 1951 when elections for Constituent Assembly of J&K were held. These elections were one sided affair as the nominations of candidates of only opposition party of that time Praja Parishad were rejected on flimsy grounds. The situations changed and the favourite leader got arrested and INC made its way to J&K in 1965. In 1975 the same leader Sheikh Abdullah was released and made CM of state with Indira-Sheikh accord giving more powers. Same situation happened in 1987 and 1996.
J&K is a state where many perceptions have been created by vested interests and it needs a new leadership that can fill the political vacuum. It needs both the trust of its people and the confidence of national leadership and is able to give a workable, sustainable and real leadership to people of J&K particularly Kashmir.
This requires a leadership which can work in a pragmatic manner for peace instead of creating a political nuisance just for their “created important role” for headlines leading to further political vacuum.
Recently a lot of speculation has been built around a possible “third front” in J&K particularly Kashmir, possibly an amalgamation of disgruntled MLAs from various parties alienated by the dynastic politics. Many such MLAs and leaders are mooting towards formation of new options in Kashmir valley.
A constantly emerging name as a central figure of this “third front” is Sajad Lone, the Chairman of People’s Conference, and a minister in previous coalition. He entered the 2014 election as a surprise, upsetting many veterans and champions of electoral politics in Kashmir.
Transparency, deliverance and decentralisation have remained mainly as missing concept in the political circles in Kashmir. Built on the patronage, indispensability, surnames and created phobia have over the years worked for weakening the state institutions, trust deficit among people and the lack of seriousness of power holders at top.
This has to end and be replaced by deliverance, involvement of people, transparency in administration and decentralization of powers. The replacement of one dynasty by another dynasty has not worked. Main thing that has hampered healthy growth of democracy as recognized political premise and practice in Jammu and Kashmir State is the lack of pragmatic opposition in the law making organ. Kashmir has been failed only and only by their leadership be it Hurriyat or mainstream leadership. The democratic institutions have never been allowed to prosper by State leadership in the name of special status and created conflict phobia. The opposition has never been allowed to prosper in a healthy democratic manner.
Somewhere the main political party in Kashmir NC could not fulfil the aspirations of people in Kashmir which led to the emergence of PDP. NC is having its base mainly in urban areas and less in rural areas. PDP emerged as party with its base in rural areas of Kashmir particularly south Kashmir. In 2014 assembly elections PDP made inroads to urban constituencies. But both these parties somewhere couldn’t make effective entry in northern portions of Kashmir. That is why People’s conference and other independent entities have merged and are emerging.
Both NC and PDP have almost same record of political gains and losses. Both rose and declined in the graph of political successes. Both the political parties have raised the Kashmir issue in their own perspectives. One talks about “Greater Autonomy” and other talks about “Self Rule”. Both of these concepts talk about Kashmir crisis and prescribe almost same solutions.
These political parties have used Article 370 and special status issues to raise the Kashmir problem. Have they talked about real empowerment of masses? Have they talked about real decentralization of powers to grass root level in letter and spirit? J&K gets highest annual spending. J&K has a unique status in Indian federal set up but people in J&K are not getting benefit of all Central welfare schemes. Yes there is alienation among people but towards local political leadership not towards Centre. Like people across the regions are appreciating present Governor Administration under President Rule. People in J&K have always suffered because of confusion due to dilemma between special status and deprivation. People have always suffered because of veil of special status to cover corruption, lack of transparency and mismanagement of affairs. In that situation emergence of third front or emergence of new leadership and groups in Kashmir is because of failure of present leadership to fulfil the aspirations of people there. People are fed up of created fear psychosis, bandhs, hartals, gloomy sloganeering and so called final solution. People want change. People want to progress. People don’t want dynasties to flourish further by befooling them. In this centre should also help in creation of such secure atmosphere where more and more groups and individuals can rise as an alternative to old political houses to fulfil the promise of real democracy. The rise of third front is a real positive signal for decentralization of powers and can be termed as a step towards zenith of democratisation of political institutions.
(The author is a J&K based Strategic and Political analyst)
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