Elections are always fought with the spirits of public representation and manifestos of political parties are as such always part of the elections in any part of the world but regional political parties in Jammu & Kashmir didn’t bother to come up with any manifesto for the ongoing Lok Sabha Elections this time just to reduce their campaigning to struggle for reversal of the August 5, 2019 decisions of the parliament already upheld by the five judge bench of the Supreme Court of the country. With five judge bench of the Supreme Court of the country shutting down the doors for reversal of the August, 5 2019 decisions of the parliament months before the commencement of Lok Sabha elections, the appeasement politics over the scrapped special status of Jammu & Kashmir by regional political parties is obviously an attempt to exploit people as usual. Regional political parties could have learnt lot of lessons from the August 5, 2019 decisions of the parliament and the Supreme Court’s full endorsement of the said decisions months before the commencement of Lok Sabha elections but they don’t tend to accept the new reality just for carrying forward the politics of appeasement and exploitation for their own political conveniences. The return of statehood and the conduct of assembly elections post J&K delimitation already guaranteed by the Supreme Court could be the beginning of a new journey for the people of Jammu & Kashmir. Regional political parties could have put into public domain the regional aspirations of the people of Jammu & Kashmir in their manifestos for the ongoing Lok Sabha elections but they didn’t do so for their own political conveniences.
“Leaders elsewhere in the country always give up politics of acrimony and animosity for the rights and aspirations of the people of their own states and union territories but leaders of regional political parties in Jammu & Kashmir tend to develop more and more acrimonies and animosities just for securing their own political interests through appeasement and exploitation of people.”
While the leaders of regional political parties have themselves termed the Lok Sabha elections an opportunity to prepare ground for the assembly elections, their attempt to initiate a debate over regional aspirations of the people through manifestos and campaigning could have been the beginning of a new engagement with both the Government and as well as the opposition parties at the centre. Unfortunately the regional political parties are divided even over the future of the regional aspirations and don’t tend to find a common meeting ground even on a single issue dearer equally to people of both Kashmir Valley and Jammu division. Leaders elsewhere in the country always give up politics of acrimony and animosity for the rights and aspirations of the people of their own states and union territories but leaders of regional political parties in Jammu & Kashmir tend to develop more and more acrimonies and animosities just for securing their own political interests through appeasement and exploitation of people.
