Throughout India, election time is sizzling. Politicians ofall hues leave no stone unturned to kick up dust over trivialities, and makeissues out of nothing. Amidst tirades, the politicians donning importantpositions are dabbling in the cheapest level of discourse to build electiontempo and keep news hounds and television channels abuzz.
Kashmir has proven no different except that the electionsand boycott talks go hand in hand. Post 1996, elections and boycott have beenwitnessed. But both have had mixed luck. The boycott has remained a fact andyet the elections were conducted, and legislators and MPs sent to newlyconstituted houses.
Perhaps, poll boycott can’t be expected to be absolute unless the separatist camp starts thinking beyond elections. The level of reactionary politics needs a rational as well as an emotional goodbye. And then, going by the fate of elections last time, when poll boycott didn’t work, any call for boycott this time again appears strange.
Though the boycott brigade is facing severe offensive right now, the issues of sadak, paani and bijli continue to be there. It seems that people are responding over simple survival issues, not intangible and insubstantial politics.
Moreover, the argument that the conduct of polls is projected internationally as a substitute to self-determination does not seem to hold much water given the chaotic situation that has been prevailing for last couple of years on international scene and across the border.
As a matter of fact, the conduct of successive elections in J&K with whatever voter turnout has failed to dilute and digress the international concern over the political situation containing here.
There is also a shameful paradigm set by mainstreampolitical parties. The discussion and dialogue over issues like repealing ofdraconian laws, release of innocent prisoners, disclosures about disappearedpersons, and rehabilitation of orphans and widows of conflict has never beentheir poll imperative.
Bereft of any honesty, they have smartly hoodwinked the masses here, exploiting the poll boycott as and when it suits their poll agenda. Even as they try to project their concern for solemn politics in election manifestoes, there is no honest and realistic discussion over vital dynamics of polity in Kashmir in their campaigns or public speeches.
The dirty blame-game steals the whole show, with commoners at a loss to relate the appalling standing of their discreditable politicians with the ensuing polls.
The poll boycott in a way helps them to remain unanswerableto many of the crucial issues, which would have invariably turned out as thegrounds of their comedown. Needless to say, the masses are well-aware of theirlimitations given the covert agenda they are ultimately supposed to pursue,cutting across the party affiliations. As such, the debates about 370 or 1953position et al are simply meant for public consumption, at best good topics forthe talking shops, with no change in ground situation.
In a system of governance where roads are not road-worthy,where muck is supplied in water supplies, where death looms large by danglingelectric distribution system, where stray dogs and garbage litter every nookand corner, where villages are in ruins and city centre is out of bounds for common people due to trafficcongestion, and where rules are meant for fools—it is naïve to expect anychange in the complexion of Kashmir imbroglio whether by altering the verycomplexion of the problem or by repeal of draconian laws.
Bottomline: At a time when whole state machinery is takingdictations for facilitating process of polling, those contesting electionsbetter concentrate on learning the art of welfare governance rather thanindulging in idle talk of providing road-maps for resolution of one of thenagging political crisis of the subcontinent. And those calling for boycott,would please excuse by not repeating their blunders again and again and again.