Though the future of mainstream politics in Jammu & Kashmir is bleak for several reasons but rising trends of defections in mainstream politics after the recently held DDC elections is a serious concern which if not addressed rightly by the top brass of top mainstream parties would prove disastrous for the future of electoral politics and governance in Jammu & Kashmir. Young leaders tending to defect from one party to the other in short spans of few months but not in years after winning the recently held DDC elections are sufficient enough to indicate that political opportunism is more dearer to them than the respect to the sentiments and slogans they raised for winning the recently held DDC elections. The youth tending to join mainstream politics with the motives of earning easy money through unlawful trade practices are not as much responsible for ruining the mainstream politics as are the top leaders of the top mainstream political parties particularly National Conference (NC), Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP), Congress, BJP and Peoples Conference. Very rarely youth tend to join politics for furthering the causes of public service and political morality as they too have learnt the arts of amassing wealth and accumulating assets from their seniors. Consequently rhe reason for mainstream politics becoming a breeding ground for political defectors is the intensifying crisis of morality in politics. Some new mainstream political parties have emerged on the political scene in Jammu & Kashmir but they are unfortunately pursuing the same traditional politics which the leaders of the oldest mainstream parties are propagating even after the bifurcation of the erstwhile Jammu & Kashmir state into two union territories and withdrawal of special status to it on August 5, 2019. Gone are the days when public service and political morality used to be the benchmarks of mainstream politics almost four decades ago as amassing wealth and accumulating assets in connivance with deadly corrupt land brokers has become the new norm of mainstream politics in Jammu & Kashmir. Ironically some of the former legislators responsible for encouraging proxy politics during the recently held DDC elections are now tending to move to greener pastures for accumulating more assets on prime locations in the twin capital cities-Srinagar and Jammu and a few tourist destinations in Kashmir valley.
_________________________________________________________________
As the new age mainstream leaders are taking cues from their seniors who don’t tend to drift away from the paths of corruption and corruptocracy, the future of mainstream politics looks bleak .
__________________________________________________________
Though most of such legislators are facing trials in the land scams of yesteryears before J&K Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) the premier investigative agency of the Jammu & Kashmir government but just to evade action they tend to switch over to parties drawing proximity with the party in power at centre. As the new age mainstream leaders are taking cues from their seniors who don’t tend to drift away from the paths of corruption and corruptocracy, the future of mainstream politics looks bleak .
