By Liyaqat Nazir,
Promises and pledges are manufactured and the cliché of ‘change’ is being broadcast from the political podiums in the chilly days of Chillai Kalan. Kashmir is again in the grip of election fever. The enthusiasm among the electorates, political parties, both traditional as well as seasonal are distressing and auspicious.
It’s distressing for those who hold this hypothesis that the people of Kashmir can’t be easily hoodwinked and victimized by any political gimmicks. It’s auspicious to those, who, after suffering avalanche of betrayals and horns waggling successfully managed to stage a democratic show on the commitments never accomplished.
TCN file photo
Many political analysts believe the right wing nationalist party coming to power at the Centre and its subsequent ambitious plunge into the Kashmir politics with provocative and polarized agenda heightened the voter turnout.
In this backdrop, common Kashmiri asserts a view that the socio economic and political discourse in the state has become so fragile and fractured that it’s becoming very hard to survive, and, hence forces them to choose ballot. On the flipside, people of the state also know in the heart of hearts that nothing has changed in Kashmir over last 60 years. But they still hope against hope to at least get rid of miss-governance through a democratic exercise, where they have never seen the real face of democracy.
Every time when the election Pandora’s box opens up in the valley, all the so-called mainstream political parties, including those that ruled the state for years, contest elections invoking basic amenities such as electricity, roads, drinking water and health care. They also raise the hollow political lollypops such as self rule and autonomy in the election season just to maneuver the sentiment of people to achieve power, nothing else.
How better it would have been if they focused on issues of governance, development and taken on the corrupt elements in the political establishment and administration? Instead, these parties always prefer to be rubber stamps. For instance, they should have put an end to the acute power crisis, which sometimes throws life out of gear for weeks. The situation goes from bad to worst in winters.
Forget the basic needs the elected lot could not even stop the havoc of NHPC on our natural resources. The mischievous agency not just operates above the law but also has virtually become state within the state. The erratic power cuts, scarcity of drinking water and the dilapidated roads have taken the Valleyites back into the Dark Age. And, unfortunately, it is not the first time that the people of the Valley are facing such endemic problems, but they are intentionally created ordeals by our own so-called red and green brigades of Kashmir.
On the employment front all the consecutive governments have exploited the unemployed youth for their own vote bank politics. As a result, thousands of hapless daily wagers, need-basis wagers and contractual employees have become the subject of neo slavery. In the name of development, projects such as the railway link, northern highway corridor might herald new era of progress, but it too may back fire and hit our sensitive ecology and agriculture sector, which was evident during the recent devastating floods.
The governments as well as different banks are frantically outsourcing their benefit schemes in the form of business, car, house and educational loans at whopping interest rates. The repercussions are in front of us. Daily we hear and read about the horrific accidents on the narrow roads and markets flooded with vehicles. It may have urbanized the valley and helped few people to establish small business units but at the same time jeopardized the very essence of our social fabric and values of life because every sixth of the population is leading a life in bankruptcy.
Education sector over the decades has faced the most brunt of the conflict and apathy from the governments. Although the valley witnessed mushrooming growth of private schools and other IT institutes, but for higher education only a single university and few engineering colleges were established over last 60 years. Now steps are being taken to establish new varsities and technical colleges to ease the competition and encourage students for research and professional courses, but will it sustain given the alarming unemployment rate, is certainly a big question.
In spite of all the broken promises, people have time and again participated in the democratic exercise and are electing their representatives on such day-to-day issues, which they want to be sorted without any delay. People are pinning their hopes and giving them another chance to full fill their promises and bring political stability in the state before the volcano of anger burns down everything.
Unfortunately every time their participation in the assembly election is celebrated in prime time talk shows on TV and press briefings, it will be a gory mistake on part of New Delhi if they try to sell the large voter turnout as their biggest political victory over separatists. Despite the large participation of people in the democratic process, given the bigwigs, bureaucrats, tired separatists and noted academicians joining the so-called mainstream politics, the banker relationship between the New Delhi and the people of state continues since the 1987’s rigged election when the mandate was hijacked and dissent muzzled.
After that every election took place in the shadow of violence and fear. The 1990 election was completely boycotted and afterwards the participation of people in the elections has not only increased but gave a clear mandate to a political class whose politics is usually conditioned by betrayals and hypocrisy.
On the other side of story, resistance leaders of valley were never given a democratic space in a democratic show by the authorities to run their election boycott campaign. This kind of selective and self serving democratic activity being carried out with the help of local political collaborators in the state to show the rest of world that all is well will not last long. The prevailing political unrest on the ground, these crafty and unscrupulous so called mainstream politicians also uphold this narrative that neither the people have rejected the resistance groups nor its a referendum in favor of any country, it’s a vote by the besieged people to put an end to the day-to-day grievances.
In light of the stupendous voter turnout in the Kashmir Valley, people are again expecting men in red and green to live up to their promises and at least restore some sort of dignity and peace. The irony is that people risk everything for them to send them in assemblies and be the voice of voiceless but what they have received so far is utter humiliation, subjugation, corruption and an endless fear.
This gutter game for power struggle among the so called mainstream parties ignoring the fact that people voted them to run the administrative shows not to provide an olive branch to anyone who just see it as a political referendum. Those who were once the roaring lions and undefeatable force in the valley are so anemic today to stand among people.
Those who fantasy that the high turnout shows people bodes well in Indian democracy and is a serious blow to the resistance groups, then the past public uprising should serve them as a reminder to their short memory that sentiment runs deep here. It will be irrelevant, inappropriate and big blunder to frame this democratic exercise as an alternative to the Kashmir imbroglio.
(Mir Liyaqat Nazir is a research scholar at the Department of English, University of Pune)
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