Wake Up Call For Kashmir Mainstream

The Central Government’s notification on domicile rights is a wakeup call for those mainstream leaders who showed their willingness to reconcile with the scrapping of special status and bifurcation of erstwhile Jammu & Kashmir state into two union territories with the hope that Prime Minister and the Home Minister would stick to their promises on land and Job rights. The notification issued on domicile rights by the central government shows that the concerns on the demography of Jammu & Kashmir connected with the policy on domicile rights of the people have been set aside . New domicile laws as understood by legal experts would by all probabilities open flood gates for the heavy influx of the people from other states serving in public or private sector in Jammu & Kashmir for the last fifteen years. Unfortunately the time choosen by the central government to issue the notification on domicile rights of the people of Jammu & Kashmir shows that the top helmsmen in the central government are more concerned over the imposition of new domicile laws in Jammu & Kashmir on their own whims and wishes and against the wishes and aspirations of local populations and very less on the implementation of COVID-19 control measures. As Jammu & Kashmir once a key state of the country is being ruined by the non stop tampering with the basic rights of the local populations, the regional political parties preaching the politics of regional aspirations with a national outlook are fast loosing their relevance.
For mainstream parties of Jammu & Kashmir this is not the time to mourn the scrapping of special status and statehood but this is time for them to rise above the levels of political affiliations and ideologies for forging unity for a common cause crucial for their own survival.
Unless and until the regional mainstream parties don’t understand and acknowledge the fact that propagating politics of bargaining for their own survival would take them no where nearer to the restoration of the basic rights of the people of Jammu & Kashmir, the political, constitutional and administrative status of Jammu & Kashmir can’t be restored. Better for the likes of Farooq Abdullah, Omar Abdullah, Mehbooba Mufti, Sajad Lone and Altaf Bukhari to take lessons from the political narratives of Mamta Banerjee, Nitesh Kumar, Biju Patnaik and Arvind Kejriwal. Delhi is not to be blamed for the political, constitutional and administrative downgrading of Jammu & Kashmir but the follies of successive popular governments of Jammu & Kashmir have largely contributed to the current chaos and mess in Jammu & Kashmir. For mainstream parties of Jammu & Kashmir this is not the time to mourn the scrapping of special status and statehood but this is time for them to rise above the levels of political affiliations and ideologies for forging unity for a common cause crucial for their own survival.