The newly elected Mayor Srinagar Municipal Corporation (SMC) setting a new record of defecting to a new party for the fourth time in quick succession in a short span of two years has proved it beyond doubt that political defectors have no ideological boundaries as they are always driven by politics of power and not politics of ideologies. The newly launched Jammu & Kashmir Apni Party (JKAP) headed by Syed Altaf Bukhari may be happy to have control over Srinagar Municipal Corporation the top civic body of valley by having it’s Mayor Junaid Azim Mattu on his side but believe it or not Mayor Mattu may desert even Bukhari’s J&K Apni Party if his job security at SMC becomes vulnerable to any change in the ideological system of the political party in power at the centre . Changing positions with the change in power structure both in Jammu & Kashmir and as well as Delhi is obviously the only ideology of Mayor Mattu. Presence of unpredictable political workers becomes the cause of organisational instability for any political party as a virtualcollapse of the Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP) is learning lesson for even the grand old party National Conference which has withstood pressures of all forms and manifestations so for. PDP Chief Mehbooba Mufti not loosing courage even after seeing her loyalist workers deserting her party one after the other within days and months of the fall of her government in July 2018 and J&K Apni Party Chief Altaf Bukhari taking pleasure in seeing the deserters and defectors of the other parties on his side within days and months of launching his new party in March this year with an agenda of political reconciliation in the aftermath of the downgrading of the erstwhile Jammu & Kashmr state to a union territory and withdrawal of it’s special status are the two extremes of the mainstream politics witnessed in last more than two years of direct central rule in Jammu & Kashmir. The blame for a new rise in defections and defectors does not lie on the likes of Mehbooba Mufti and Altaf Bukhari but on the political party in power at the centre which is instigating polarisation and defections not only in Jammu & Kashmir but also in several states of the country.
Defections and polarisation may become the sources of the political expansionism for the party ruling at the centre but the ramifications of the defections and polarisation won’t serve the causes of political stability anywhere in the country as defectors and deserters don’t have respect for any political ideology in any part of the country. Had defections been sources of peoples’ empowerment, the other biggest democracies of the world like America and England would have taken a lead over India and other countries in encouraging the politics of defections and polarisation.
Defections and polarisation may become the sources of the political expansionism for the party ruling at the centre but the ramifications of the defections and polarisation won’t serve the causes of political stability anywhere in the country as defectors and deserters don’t have respect for any political ideology in any part of the country. Had defections been sources of peoples’ empowerment, the other biggest democracies of the world like America and England would have taken a lead over other countries in encouraging the politics of defection and polarisation.
