JK News Today Commentary
Jammu and Ladakh regions have sent a resounding message of their faith in the Indian democracy and turning their dream of the development of their places into reality. This, they did by participating in huge numbers in the democratic exercise held for the municipal polls . They showed that they will always work for democracy to preserve peace in their regions .
The boycott is a negative politics . This time the so-called mainstream parties People’s Democratic Party and the National Conference joined the race of the traditional boycott callers , the Hurriyat Conference, now has changed its nomenclature to the Joint Resistance Leadership .
In all fairness, if some areas in the Valley have not voted , it should be assessed in the realistic terms and not through the stratospheric assessment of those sitting in the security zones . Their delight over the boycott in the Valley is comical . The polls were held all across the state , not just in few pockets of the Valley where the people stayed away from the polling booths . There are many reasons for that . The most prominent among them was the killing spree launched by the militants and the patronage provided by the erstwhile ruling parties, including the National Conference and PDP .
Isn’t it a fact that the militants abducted and killed civilians and policemen in different parts of the Valley? Isn’t it a fact that the militant commanders held out death threat to anyone venturing out to vote . Isn’t it a fact that the National Conference and PDP by choosing to keep silent on it helped spread the fear among the people. Their boycott of the polls was part of their strategy to move with the tide of the fear of the militancy rather than resist it .
It is time that Kashmir should have woken up and seen through the game of anti –democratic forces active in the Valley .
Having said that, Kashmiri leadership should stop measuring the sentiment of the peoples of Jammu and Ladakh by their short-sightedness by viewing everything from the boycott . They are disturbed by the fact that the two major regions of the State – Jammu and Ladakh—have maintained their uniqueness and rebuffing all the opportunistic politicians .
