J K News Today Commentary

Anantnag election is over, no it is not over as yet. The stakes are very high in this parliamentary constituency that went to polls in the first of the three phased polling on Tuesday- next two phases are due on April 29 and May 6. The curtains will not be lifted until May 23rd  when the results will be out  for all the parliamentary seats in the country.

This constituency in South Kashmir that borders the capital city of Srinagar and rises up to the heights of Pir Panjal range of the Himalayas with an access to Jammu region was in news for all the wrong reasons in 2016 when street protests dotted the daily calendar  and  the stone throwing crowds clashing with the security forces  brought about a phenomenon  in which  life lost the fear of death , and burials and funerals  spurred the new brand of militancy with much more anger and never say die groups of  young men .

One of the young men  born out of this generation was Adil Ahmad Dar, who blew himself up  while striking at the CRPF convoy and killing 40 of the men on February 14 in Lethpora, Pulwama. This unfortunate and unforgettable tragic terror attack spotlighted new dangers in the Kashmir landscape , and by extension to the country.

It is this constituency where the polls began on Tuesday with people choosing to stay back in homes, and very thin lines or no lines at all outside the polling booth. It was because of the anger of the people was at its peak. They wanted to punish the politicians who had let them down in every sphere of life .The children were misled , education was made subservient to politics of diversion and violence , the radicalism was fuelled by all kinds of medium from social media to the blaring of the messages  by the protestors who thought they had the ultimate control over the land and the system.

They were encouraged to do so by the politicians who thought that their agitation would help them politically in blackmailing Centre and they could stay relevant in Kashmir politics forever. Calm was restored , but it was not the real calm. The people had seen through the game of the politicians who were exploiting them for their self-serving goals.

Today, on the day of the first of the three phased polling, they gave vent to anger  by parking themselves at home . It is not apathy nor the effect of the boycott call of the separatists in complete sense of the words , but a collective punishment that they wanted to deliver to the politicians .