“While people hope that Prime Minister and Home Minister would fulfil their commitments on restoration of statehood also, they also hope that incoming popular Government would also put in its best to strengthen democratic institutions from top to bottom in Jammu & Kashmir.”
The announcement of the assembly election results has finally completed the process of the restoration of democracy in Jammu & Kashmir and as such the restoration of the statehood remains the only unfulfilled commitment of the incumbent central Government in Jammu & Kashmir . Since none else than Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah have promised the restoration of the statehood both within and outside the parliament not once but dozens of times, the people of Jammu & Kashmir hope early restoration of statehood by the Central Government . Notably Prime Minister Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah had themselves made it clear that delimitation of assembly and parliamentary constituencies would be followed by the assembly elections and last step towards full restoration of democracy would be restoration of statehood in Jammu & Kashmir. So for the Prime Minister and Home Minister have fulfilled their commitments as per their own announcements within and outside the parliament and the next step as per their own commitment is now restoration of statehood. While people hope that Prime Minister and Home Minister would fulfil their commitments on restoration of statehood also, they also hope that incoming popular Government would also put in its best to strengthen democratic institutions from top to bottom in Jammu & Kashmir. Interestingly the onus of completing the process of Panchayat and Municipal Elections would be now more on the elected Chief Minister and less on the Lt Governor.
“While most of the political parties had stayed away from Panchayat and Municipal elections for their own reasons, no political party would even think about staying away from Panchayat or Municipal Elections in the present political scenario anywhere in Jammu & Kashmir. As surge in turn out in the recent parliamentary assembly elections shows the increasing interest of both the political parties and as well as the people in the working of democratic institutions, the early conduct of both the Panchayat and Municipal elections would complete the process of establishing a full democratic system from top to bottom for next five years in Jammu & Kashmir. “
Since democracy at the grassroots also strengthens democracy at the highest level, the conduct of panchayat and municipal elections deserves immediate attention of the new Government which would hopefully take charge in coming few days. As the groundwork for the conduct of proposed panchayat and municipal elections has been already started by the election authorities, the incoming Government has just to expedite the preparations for the conduct of these elections for smooth functioning of the three tier panchayat system and municipal bodies in Jammu & Kashmir. While most of the political parties had stayed away from Panchayat and Municipal elections for their own reasons, no political party would even think about staying away from Panchayat or Municipal Elections in the present political scenario anywhere in Jammu & Kashmir. As surge in turn out in the recent parliamentary assembly elections shows the increasing interest of both the political parties and as well as the people in the working of democratic institutions, the early conduct of both the Panchayat and Municipal elections would complete the process of establishing a full democratic system from top to bottom for next five years in Jammu & Kashmir.
