While the Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah and hundreds of parliamentarians in the ongoing parliament session of the parliament took pride in the biggest ever show of democracy in the recently held DDC elections in Jammu & Kashmir , the elections conducted for Chairpersons and Vice Chairperson in Kashmir districts since the start of the budget session of the parliament show that democracy has been once more debunked through a process of political defections, deceits and cross votes obviously with the proxy approval of the party in power at the centre and some influencing quarters of the Jammu & Kashmir Government. Well before the elections for the posts of Chairpersons and Vice Persons of newly constituted district development councils (DDCs) several deputy commissioners of valley districts were unceremoniously transferred and incumbent Dy Commissioner Baramulla had to take charge in a short time of few hours and obviously such transfers were overtly and covertly connected with elections for DDC Chairpersons and Vice Chairpersons. Defections by DDC members and even cross votes by them could have been stopped by an anti-defection law and hand count voting instead of secret ballot election for the posts of DDC Chairpersons and Vice Chairpersons , but ironically the State Election Commissioner rejected objections of on and all over the reservation of Chairpersons for several districts in Kashmir valley. While the hilly districts like Shopian and Kulgam were fit for schedule tribe reservation, the government surprisingly reserved Anantnag district for ST only to lent credence to the allegations that defections, deceits cross votes and reservations were planned in advance by the party ruling at the centre in connivance with it’s local political collaborators in Kashmir. Denying the right to elect DDC chairpersons and vice chairpersons of their own choice to the parties which had the required numbers either by defections or cross votes is in itself an indication that a new rule book similar to the one experimented during the reign of late Bakshi Gh Mohammad in mid fifties has been again put in place to subvert democracy in Kashmir.
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Since it has been proved beyond doubt that politics is more unpredictable than ever before in Jammu & Kashmir, it is for the people to punish the deserters to give a space to dissenters and conscience keepers.
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A party with three DDC seats in Srinagar and two in Shopian capturing the positions of both Chairpersons and Vice Chairpersons show that defections in Srinagar and cross votes in Shopian were allowed to subvert democracy in both the districts- one in Central Kashmir and another in South Kashmir. Peoples Conference pulling out from PAGD immediately days after DDC polls and wining positions with the support of Apni Party and both Peoples Conference and Apni Party supporting independent candidate Safeena Beig wife of former PDP patron Muzaffar Beig for Baramulla DDC Chairperson position show that the parties and individuals cobbling together against PAGD have been part of a plan executed in Jammu & Kashmir since August 5,2019. In this whole process of DDC election while Sajad Lone the Chairman Peoples’ Conference has shown the capacity of deserting even the tallest political leaders like Syed Ali Shah Geelani of separatist camp and Farooq Abdullah of the mainstream camp during his several decades of political career, Altaf Bukhari and his associates in the Apni Party have once more proved that they have the capacity to successfully cultivate the art of changing minority into majority and majority into minority in any situation. Remember Sajad Lone once trashed allegations of Syed Ali Shah Geelani in the backdrop of proxy candidate row in 2002 assembly elections and clarified that that he won’t turn from separatist to mainstream politics before 2002 assembly elections but ultimately Sajad switched over to mainstream politics six years later . Yet agains Sajad again has proved his untruthfulness in politics as he this time turned against PAGD days after vowing to remain part of the alliance till reversal of central government’s August 5, 2019 decisions on erstwhile Jammu & Kashmir state. Since it has been proved beyond doubt that politics is more unpredictable than ever before in Jammu & Kashmir , it is for the people to punish the deserters to give a space to dissenters and conscience keepers .
