Political attractions at Pantha Chowk

National Conference Vice President Omar Abdullah a former Chief Minister of Jammu & Kashmir and PDP President Mehbooba Mufti another former Chief Minister of the state are though becoming the attractions for general public as they sit in for protests at the entrance-cum-exit point at Pantha Chowk on Srinagar-Jammu highway but their protests don’t wake up the governor’s administration from deep slumber to review the controversial decision on highway closure. Sit in protests by two former chief ministers who are also leaders of two largest regional mainstream parties against the closure of highway for two days a week at Pantha Chowk look similar to the protests staged by jobless youth and employee unions at city centre Lal Chowk. Unfortunately both the former chief ministers during their sit in protests at Pantha Chowk don’t attract huge crowds who other wise join them in their election rallies in towns and villages now a days when the campaigning for the parliamentary elections is at its peak. Keeping in view the basic intent of sit in protests by two former chief ministers over a sensitive issue like travel on Kashmir highway, the people should have joined them in huge numbers at the sit in protests but people choose not to join the sit in protests of both the former chief ministers because of the rhetorical politics they propagate with high intensity during campaigning for the ongoing parliamentary elections in the state.
Instead of leading separate sit in protests at Pantha Chowk better it would have been for both the former chief ministers to lead a joint protest sit in at Jantar Mantar in Delhi where the protests by them could attract even international attention and such a kind of protests in the heart Delhi could have prompted the central government to review its decision on highway closure. Sit in protests by the two former chief ministers at Pantha Chowk shows their intent to play politics with the road closure issue in election time as otherwise they could have easily arranged such sit ins at Jantar Mantar in New Delhi and seek a meeting with the President of India to ensure an immediate review of the decision by the central government. Non serious responses of the mainstream parties including National Conference and Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP) over the highway closure is the basic cause of non serious response of the Home Minister who during his recent visit to Jammu ruled out the possibility of rolling back the decision on weekly two day closure of the Kashmir highway for movement of the army and paramilitary convoys to Kashmir.