B L Saraf
Election to constitute Jammu and Kashmir Legislative Assembly is over. Business of governance begins. The striking feature of this election, held after the gap of ten years, has been the enthusiastic and overwhelming voter response which emanated from every nook and corner of the UT. Braving extreme weather conditions, voters queued up early in the morning to cast the vote. The other notable feature has been the near absence of violence in the conduct of the election. Though, not discounting the terroristic attacks on civilians and the security forced which have been going on for the last couple of years in the hilly terrains of Jammu and Kashmir. That, however, didn’t disturb the election process in contrast to what would happen in the past. Peaceful conduct of the election has prompted the Chief Election Commissioner to say that earlier the Valley and mountains often witnessed fear and boycott of the elections: today people fearlessly took part in the election which he called a democratic festivity – “Jashen -e – Jamhuriat.”
The high voter turnout and the peaceful atmosphere in which the election process concluded will indeed inspire many knowledgeable observers to make a comment or two but certain things are obvious for even an ordinary person to comment upon. PM Narendra Modi and the BJP poll mangers said that the matter of good governance and development was the dominant theme in this election. May be true, but partly so. We have been hearing it from these very persons that after August 5th 2019 constitutional changes ” the good governance and development ” rained torrential in the UT under the L G’s regime, who reports directly to the Union Home Minster, without the benefit of J K Legislative Assembly. Spontaneous overflow of the polling booths – especially in Kashmir, meant more than a vote for “good governance and development”.
True, in the last ten years issues which have a vital bearing on the day to today life of a common resident got piled up along with his democratic urge. There was not hardly anyone to listen him, nor was a space provided to him to give vent to his genuine demands. Naturally, that has made voters to rush to a polling booth. The huge turnout has something more to tell.That could be the psychological cum political one. Downgrading a Class 1 state, like Jammu and Kashmir, to the level of Union Territory – unheard of earlier, has without any doubt inflicted a big psychological blow to the people of J & K in general and those of the Valley in particular. No wonder all political players and the political parties in J&K are one in demanding restoration of the state hood, in full. While It is heartening to know that PM Narendra Modi and HM Amit Shah have assured the people that J&K will get the statehood back, it is the prevarication about the time table as to when will it happen that dampens the spirit.
Ram Madhav – BJP’ s man in charge JK election, writing in i.e 29th September described the impressive voter turnout and participation of Jammat people in the election as ” indication that the people of this troubled region no longer want to be prisoners of the politics of the bygone era.” This indication has to be read in many ways which Ram Madhav may like us to skip over. It is the underlying sentiment of alienation, unfulfilled political demands and resentment of sorts against some of the actions which GOI initiated in J&K, after 2019, that have to be factored in while analyzing the huge voter turnout.
It is in the larger interests of J &K and the country that Statehood is restored as early as possible. More than that it is for the BJP led Central Government to ensure that whosoever assumes charge of governing Jammu and Kashmir after 8th October is allowed a free run, permissible under law of the land, so far as governance matters are concerned. Mutual cooperation between L G and the elected CM should be order of the day. One has to appreciate that J&K is no Delhi -where largely due to the actions of over bearing LG and unexplainable obduracy of Arvind Kejriwal the governance has come to a stand -still. J&K though truncated, still has large and varied geographic territory. So is its past and present history. Its strategic location on the border of couple of countries – not friendly to India- adds to its geo-political complexity. The scourge of terrorism sourced from neighboring countries continues to play havoc with lives of our brave security personnel and the innocent civilians
Seen above, the experimentation business, carried in J&K over a period of time by various Central Government regimes must stop forthwith. Ten years is indeed a very long time to give people in J&K a chance to have their own Government: it will be a disaster if they have to wait for another decade to get the same chance, next time. It is incumbent upon the BJP led Central Government to ensure that gains accrued by conducting a peaceful election, wherein people participated in lakhs shouldn’t fritter away. Regional political parties and the political players have equal duty to respect the wishes of people and avoid playing game of one upmanship.
PM Modi will do great service to the nation if he remembers, in the time to come, what he said on the successful conduct of the elections, which is: “that people in J&K have opted for peace over violence and preferred ballot over the bullet.” No occasion should be given to the people to revise their option and preferences in favour of the opposite.
A loud murmur was heard during the entire duration of the electoral process that many proxies have been set up by the agencies in Kashmir to cut down the winning chances of the settled regional parties and prop up the central ruling party. Well a final word is yet to be heard on the matter. Ram Madhav’s take on the entry of Engineer Rashid’s foray into the election arena makes an interesting read. He writes in a national daily (i.e) on Rashid’s electoral ambition, seen as a spoiler, the dark horse with penchant for soft separatist rabble -rousing is certainly upsetting the prospects of established regional parties.” Political engineering is good but it can’t be stretched as to turn popular mandate upside down.
While as GOI’s responsibility to honour the public mandate is huge, that of the elected persons is no less important to maintain the sanctity of the election result and save J K from plunging back to the darkest days of not so distant past. Aya Ram -Gaya Ram syndrome will defile the sanctity of the elections and spell doom for the UT. Once the election dust settles down and an elected dispensation is in place New Delhi must engage with the stakeholders and sincerely endeavor to address the political demands. That will be the true honoring of people’s verdict.
(The author is former Principal District & Sessions Judge)
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