While one leader united people of all shades in West Bengal against the ruling party in power at the centre and almost changed the national scene of India’s mainland politics, but on the contrary many leaders divided people of Jammu & Kashmir only to reduce a glorious state of yesteryears to a union territory and don’t give up the politics of horizontal and vertical divides even after central government’s constitutional moves over Jammu & Kashmir on August 5, 2019. While Mamta Banerjee did not give up the fight against the mighty central leadership of the BJP even after facing the wrath of almost all the central government’s investigative agencies including Central Bureau Of Investigation (CBI) , Enforcement Directorate (ED) and National Investigative Agency (NIA), the mainstream leaders of Jammu & Kashmir who joined Gupkar Alliance for a joint fight gave up the spirit of unity and returned to politics of polarisation for control over few District Development Councils (DDCs) and municipal bodies in a short span of few months. While dividing people in election time for the purposes of fractured mandates to give ruling party at the centre the opportunity to impose it’s own political agenda over the people of Jammu & Kashmir had become a permanent political narrative of mainstream parties in Jammu & Kashmir, uniting people in election time to deny political space to the ruling party at the centre and henceforth also deny it the opportunity to be a partner in government formation has become a political narrative of Mamta Banerjee in West Bengal.
Not the political party in power at the centre but the leaders of Jammu & Kashmir’s mainstream parties themselves polarising people on regional and religious lines are responsible for the suspension of popular rule and prolonged central rule in Jammu & Kashmir. Better for them to take lessons from the experiences and political postures of Mamta Benerjee’s policy of political resilience.
Even mass defections from TMC could not reduce Mamta Benerjee’s spirit to fight the mighty central leadership of BJP, So we can say that while Mamta Benerjee united people of West Bengal for showing the power of ballot to political party in power at the centre and deny space to even forces of political polarisation like Assad-Ud-Din Owaisi led All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) in her home state West Bengal,, the leaders of Jammu & Kashmir divided people for throwing up fractured mandates for about two decades and while pursuing the politics of polarisation offered political space to the ruling party at the centre even in the recently held DDC elections . The regional political parties giving political space to the political parties in power at the centre does not head to any dead end even after the downgrading of the erstwhile Jammu & Kashmir state to a union territory and withdrawal of special status to it under article 370 and article 35 A. In Jammu & Kashmir we had more than half a dozen chief ministerial candidates as leader of every political family wanted to be the chief minister but in West Bengal a state having 42 parliamentary constituencies there were hardly three chief ministerial candidates. Not the political party in power at the centre but the leaders of Jammu & Kashmir’s mainstream parties themselves polarising people on regional and religious lines are responsible for the suspension of popular rule and prolonged central rule in Jammu & Kashmir. Better for them to take lessons from the experiences and political postures of Mamta Benerjee’s policy of political resilience.
