Kashmir: 2024 Elections and First Time Voters
This time the political parties will need to work harder to actually make people of Kashmir, especially first time voters, to vote for them.
[Fayaz Mir, former Rajya Sabha Member in a file photo. He is contesting 2024 elections from Baramulla as PDP candidate.]
The election campaigns are skyrocketing. Kashmir is familiarizing rest of India at it’s best. The 2024 Parliamentary elections are the only prominent elections that Kashmir is witnessing for the first time after the abrogation of Article 370.
All political parties are assuring to do numerous things for the people of Jammu and Kashmir. From restoration of Article 370 to removal of AFSPA and PSA everything is being promised.
Kashmir sends just three members to the Indian Parliament. Will these three MPs from Kashmir be able to convince the other 500+ MPs to vote for the bills they promise to introduce to remove these laws?
Leave alone convincing the 500 MPs in the Parliament. The parties in J&K tore up the alliance in the Union Territory just because they couldn’t spare a seat for each other. The politicians, who had come together for unity, now can easily be seen attacking each other.
Or do they have any other plan?
So far they haven’t come out to people other than holding the other party responsible for the miseries and reminding each other of their past.
If we compare and analyse the parties on what they have done in the past then no party is actually deserving for being elected and voted.
Will the National Conference (JKNC) claim being better than People’s Democratic Party (PDP) or People’s Democratic Party claim being better than the National Conference?
No. Both have the past that can’t be washed away.
Will People’s Conference claim that it’s better than JKNC and PDP? No way. The party supremo was a Minster in the BJP-PDP government and we all know what happened during 2016 but did he resign? No he didn’t.
Or did he speak against it? No he didn’t. How will he claim high moral grounds?
Let’s talk about Apni Party. What moral ground does it have? What do they have to present to people? Apni Party has all those who have been minsters and MLAS in various governments and while they were in power killings took place and sufferings of the people continued unabated but they didn’t utter a word.
Will today Apni Party claim being the only party which deserves to be sent to the Parliament?
No. For sure not.
Speak about Ghulam Nabi Azad's party. The picture is same here. They have not a single new leader who people can trust.
The only new face that has come out is from the PDP. Waheed ur Rahaman Parra. The man who did a great job as Sports Secretary. He is the only new face that we have in the 2024 General Elections.
And to some extent Fayaz Mir, former Rajya Sabha member who is new to elections. He spoke during the abrogation of Article370, protested and even tore his kurta to express his opposition. This was when all the other three NC MPs were mute and smiling.
The National Conference leadership knows that people are annoyed because of them and hence no one among them is running for the elections this time.
Mehbooba Mufti has once again reached out to people. She is the only leader in Jammu Kashmir who spoke for people of Kashmir like no one is doing. She and her party had and has to face so much for the stand she and the PDP are taking.
Parties claiming that if they come to power in the state would outlaw this or that. Are they actually so empowered to do that?
For sure No.
The CM of UT is just an advisor to the LG. Assembly passes the bill and then it goes to LG, it’s all in the LG's hands. Assembly is just an advisory body, nothing more. So don’t be fooled. Be wise.
I don’t support PDP or intend to motivate people to vote for the party. But Mufti Mohammad Sayeed curbed Ikhwans and STF. Both were given birth by NC. Mufti Mohammad Sayeed took action against Chittisinghpura massacre that took place in year 2000 while Bill Clinton was on the visit to the Subcontinent.
People of Kashmir, especially the first time voters like me, are in limbo, who to vote for. We can’t vote for someone who has blood on their hands. We can’t be fooled by their fake promises. We know the history, we know what they have done.
This time the political parties will need to work harder to actually make people of Kashmir, especially first time voters, to vote for them.
[The writer, Raqif Makhdoomi, is student of law and a rights activist. Views are personal.]
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