Finally, the cat is out of the bag. When the former Chief Minister of the erstwhile Jammu and Kashmir state, Omar Abdullah was asked a question in a well-timed interview by a national TV channel about the future course of the recently formed Gupkar political alliance, he said categorically that ‘they are not going to beg before the government of India for what they demand and have instead taken the issue to the Supreme Court of India for final redressal’.
In context of the political fight being taken by the Kashmir centric mainstream leadership to the court of law, ordinarily any political process involved in such a situation is generally ruled out. It becomes a purely legal and constitutional fight and the street shows don’t matter in such a struggle.
Neither it matters as to why and how the struggle is fought by those who don’t agree to such a workable means or solution of fighting the fight. Omar was also forthright in his assertion that they are not going to ask the people to adopt ‘violent means’ to achieve what has been ‘snatched away’ from them on 5-6 August 2019.
He, by his statements on the channel, virtually bound all the partners to the new alliance to the belief that the political process had no role so far as the issue to be taken to the people and the government was concerned. He also made it clear that the electoral process and the political process are two seperate issues and need not to be linked together.
The crux of his arguments, though put in a cocktail of seriousness, anger and wit, was that their demand of ‘restoration of pre-August 5, 2019 position was purely legal and constitutional and there was no scope for begging before the government of India’.
He also maintained that that ‘he wouldn’t like to make media the via-media to talk to the PM or HM on this issue’ thus making it clear that the Gupkar alliance was for a court verdict in their favour by the top institution of jurisprudence in India.
But what the junior Abdullah sought to overshadow was that there was a terrible sentiment against the family feudalism in politics in Jammu and Kashmir and particularly in the valley against Abdullahs and Muftis. People were so furious about their corruption, nepotism, highhandedness and bad governance all these decades that most of the people in Jammu and Kashmir were feeling relaxed and happy after their detention and house arrest in August 2019. Not even a single protest or stone pelting was organised by any quarter against their detention and jail anywhere in the state.
Instead general public wanted them to be tried in the court of law as ordinary citizens for their errors of ommission and commission during their long rule, ammassing of illegal wealth and properties, siphoning out money from public exchequor by one or the other means, Cricket Association scam, J&K Bank frauds, illegal holding of government bangalows, taking refuge under the Roshni Act for illegal allotment of chunks of land which has now been declared unconstitutional by the honorable J&K High court and the withholding of reform in the Panchayati Raj scheme.
There can be no gain saying that the people in all the three regions of the erstwhile state never ever over the last 14 months bothered to express their anger against the detention of their past leaders. People in Ladakh took their battles all along, and this time too, without the involvement of these leaders anywhere, anytime. They made merry when the August 5, 2019 happenings took place. The aspirations of Jammu region overwhelmingly supported the center’s move of 2019.
Introspection in light of these facts will lead to the conclusion that all the parties to the so-called Gupkar Alliance want to live in a make-believe world of their own and have not as yet reconciled to the new realities, at least publicly.
The Congress (in Kashmir) has virtually backtracked from the alliance as on date, thus making the Gupkar experiment a purely regional issue confined to the Kashmir valley environs. The Kashmiri Pandit displaced community, which is a part and parcel of the Kashmir valley has also come out in total support of the Government of India’s moves of August 2019. It makes the alliance of Gupkar a virtual communal and regional alliance in which till date no ‘outsider’ has been granted a birth.
The so-called Gupkar activism pointed it out very well that the ‘Gupkar circus’ doesn’t comprise any non-Muslim or non-Kashmiri in its fold. It is purely a sectarian and communal agenda reminiscent of the J&K Muslim Conference agenda of 1930s for fulfillment of desires and ambitions to rule J&K again, by hook or by crook. Every single participant knows it well that what they demand is not possible even in dreams through an established political mechanism.
All leaders of the parties comprising the alliance should first of all ask everyone among their fold to handover the possession of the huge chunks of land that they have illegally held under the unconstitutional Roshni Act.
They need also to furnish the list of the beneficiaries from their respective parties who grabbed costly pieces of land with the help and connivance of the then government and administration.
It is high time for these parties to come clean on the issue before the public and recognize the right of the public to ask them about their accountability and transparency in this regard. They should also at once leave their high profile government bangalows for which they are not entitled to.
The required amendment in the Panchayati Raj Rules announced for Jammu and Kashmir recently has further taken the carpet out of their feet. While it is a highly appreciated move and is a great step to take democracy to the grass root level, this will also open new opportunities of participation in the government by the public representatives with a developmental agenda in focus.
Truly speaking, it is a major pathbreaking step to set up, for the first time, the District Development Councils (DDCs) in the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir.
The J&K Panchayati Raj Rules amended to provide DDCs is a breakthrough democratic advance which will also require delimitation of the constituencies & their elections for 14 segments in each district. Thus it will accommodate at least 280 public representatives among the district socio-political activists for participation in the democratic and developmental processes throughout the UT.
The envisaged District Planning Committees and portfolios in the District Development Councils in the UT are also a big stride in this connection which will give a right to the elected representative to choose the right priorities while planning for his/her district and the constituency he or she represents. It is a revolutionary measure that has the blessings of the PM, Narendra Modi and the Union Home Minister.
The Delimitation Commission is doing its business and will be forwarding its report in a six-months time enabling the Election Commission and the government to proceed further ahead in regard to the electoral process in the UT.
In such a situation, where the political and developmental agenda in the state are being pursued vigorously by the governments and the instrumentalities of the government supported by the BJP, the Gupkar Alliance seem to be a damp squib.
The struggle and wait for the judgement of the Supreme Court of India for the alliance is the only tangible agenda, for the time being, for it. It has committed itself to the outcome and judgement of the Apex court, ultimately, meaning that it has accepted the political defeat ab initio. Hope the wait is not too long and, later, the judgement is also not ‘accepted with conditions’.
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