One of the poorest turn outs in Srinagar parliamentary constituency comprising three central Kashmir districts on 18th of this month has sent out a message that mainstream politics is far away from the point of recovery after witnessing almost a similar poor turnout in the 2017 by elections to the Srinagar parliamentary constituency. The Narendra Modi led BJP Government’s one point agenda of anti-militancy operations won’t restore peace in Kashmir as the credibility of the mainstream politics has suffered heavily due to a directionless policy on both law enforcement and as well as developmental fronts in Kashmir valley. The Modi government’s miscalculated tendencies to impose its own decisions in the revival of democratic processes and restoration of peace and order have taken people of Kashmir far away from the country’s mainland electoral politics. Had the Modi government been concerned about the country’s national stakes in running a popular government in Jammu & Kashmir, it won’t have preferred party’s interests over its internal security interests and institutional restoration in Jammu & Kashmir. Though everyone had understood it well that BJP’s alliance with PDP did not work well for first ten months under the leadership of Mufti Mohammad Sayeed but saffron party tried to play political tricks with the core agenda of its ally PDP on Kashmir issue. Once the saffron party had agreed to defreeze the contentious issues like article 370 and article 35 A, it was the responsibility of Prime Minister Modi to foil the attempts of the BJP’s hard core affiliates to throw legal challenges to either article 370 or article 35 A. Discrediting PDP by allowing legal challenges against article 370 and article 35 A in the supreme court of the country not only brought all the regional political parties along with Congress on the same page but also led to the fall of a popular government and restoration of popular rule in Jammu & Kashmir is increasingly becoming a huge challenge for the central government in the present hostile security atmosphere in Kashmir.
Confrontations and provocations won’t bring mainstream politics closer to the point of recovery but would discredit it more and more with every passing day if the central government does not look at the situation in Kashmir beyond its one point agenda of anti-militancy operations.
Threatening “Hitting touch” to militants and separatists and promising healing touch to civilians is not an attempt of reconciliation but yet another attempt of provocation and confrontation from the Modi government which could now go if the verdict of the people in 2019 poll battle goes against the BJP and its allies in the ongoing parliamentary elections. Confrontations and provocations won’t bring mainstream politics closer to the point of recovery but would discredit it more and more with every passing day if the central government does not look at the situation in Kashmir beyond its one point agenda of anti-militancy operations.
