By: Mehran Riyaz
SRINAGAR: It has been almost a year since, we last had an elected government in place, in the state of Jammu & Kashmir. In June 2018, BJP, the main alliance partner of PDP took away its support from the PDP and the government collapsed in the state.
Simultaneously, the then governor, N.N Vohra took over the reins of the administration of the state. Two months later, in August, 2018, a new governor, Satya Pal Malik who had held the same post in Bihar was made to replace him. The majority of the mainstream parties of mainly Kashmir opined that BJP had placed one of its own representatives and the new governor was there to serve the party.
The people of Kashmir were more anxious as in August, the hearing of Article 35A was scheduled for hearing in the Supreme Court. The Governor administration in the State appealed to the Supreme Court that the hearing needed to be postponed till an elected government was in place in the state.
The hearing was thereby postponed and the people heaved a sigh of relief. In November, surprisingly PDP made an announcement that they had decided to form an alliance with the Congress and also the National Conference (NC) would give outside support to the alliance.
They said the alliance was formed to save article 35A and 370 of the constitution of India, but Sajad Gani, the lone chairman of the Peoples Conference also staked claim with the support of the BJP and other rebel PDP MLA ‘s. Events, however, took a different turn as the Governor of the state dissolved the Assembly, citing that the coalition was not good for the state.
Since then, every mainstream party has been waiting for the announcement of the Assembly elections’ dates.
Even the home minister Rajnath Singh in Rajya Sabha had said early this year that they were ready to hold Assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir and that the elections could be held with the Lok Sabha polls or right after the Lok Sabha polls.
The Election Commission declined such a proposal when officials visited the state to take the look at the situation in Kashmir and right away decided that the Assembly elections and the Lok Sabha elections could not be held simultaneously.
They stated that for one, in Anantnag Lok Sabha constituency the election will be held in 5 phases but the Election Commission did say that they will again review the situation after the Lok Sabha polls are over in the state.
Now that the Lok Sabha elections are about to be over, there are reports of further delaying of the Assembly elections which is rather unfortunate.
The home ministry had already posted 200 companies of paramilitary forces in Kashmir for the Lok Sabha elections. Sending them away and bringing them back again, if the elections are announced will be costly for the government.
The parliamentary elections will finish soon after which the Central government can send more central forces here so that the basic right of democracy which is to elect representatives is executed peacefully. Besides, why should people of Ladakh or Jammu suffer because of some disturbance in Kashmir?
The people in the state want to have an elected government in place so that local issues can be resolved. When there is an elected minister in the secretariat, he gets a lot of visitors from the place he has been voted to power, in his office. Then he can be apprised of the problems the people are suffering from. Right now, the bureaucrats in the secretariat are not accessible to the public in a way a representative MLA or a minister is.
The long term strategy of economic development and education can also be better chalked out by an elected government that will be in place for the next 5 or 6 years rather than a temporary Governor. This is true, despite the fact that he has taken some positive steps such as giving Ladakh a separate university and a separate region status.
On the other hand, the mainstream Kashmir centric parties allege that the present governor has been working at the behest of the central government. They have cited the example of banning Jamaat Islami which would have been difficult had a Kashmir Centric political party been in charge of the state.They also feel that centre is causing unnecessary delay in holding the Assembly elections.
The Election Commission has to take a stand immediately on the elections of Jammu and Kashmir because there are people in the state that are questioning the credibility of the Election Commission of India.
The decision should be taken without any further delay, so that the paralysed development of the state may get a new lease of life. More importantly, the youth that have deviated towards violence particularly in South Kashmir can only be induced into the mainstream by an elected mainstream party. Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh deserve an elected government as soon as possible.
