Five years of Central rule: many in J&K pine for polls as Centre vacillates

Srinagar: Jammu and Kashmir has completed five years of Central rule, marking the second longest period in the state’s history with no elected government in power.

Voices rising from the state are ever more critical of the BJP, with the former Chief Minister Omar Abdullah accusing the saffron party of not holding polls because of ‘fearing imminent defeat’, NDTV reported.

Several other leaders including Sajad Lone of People's Conference blamed ‘continuous denial of democracy’ in the state after it was stripped of statehood.

In August 2019 the Central controversially repealed Article 370, depriving the state of its ‘semi-autonomous position’, thus suspending polls turning it into Union Territory.

Jammu and Kashmir has been under presidential rule for eight times since 1977 while other states came under central rule a total of 125 times, according to the report.

The people of J&K last time went to vote was in 2014 which resulted in a ‘fractured mandate’ bringing to power an alliance by Mehbooba Mufti's People's Democratic Party and the BJP.

The two parties with disparate ideologies worked on a common minimum agenda which however did not last long when it collapsed in 2018 after the BJP withdrew support to the ministry.

As five years of the presidential rule continue, voters are in the state are reportedly waiting to exercise their democratic right.

Thousands of people in the state have sacrificed their lives fighting for democracy since 1990, the report said, citing the example of Mohammad Sidique Wani and his family in a remote village, Lankrishan in Kupwara district.

The 85-year-old is now suffering from dementia, especially stemming from his long endurance to terrorist threats.

The grand old man is struggling with the pain of losing his three sons Bashir Ahmad, Abdul Ahad and Nazir Ahmad to terrorist attacks.

The family was particularly targeted because of its decision to hold on democratic process and exercise their rights.

Despite his failing memory, which his family now takes as a boon as it lessens his pain from horrible past, Mohammad Sidique Wani often expresses his desire to vote.

The family hopes the exhausted warrior for democracy will get a chance to vote one last time, according to the report.

‘Sometimes he talks about politics and asks when he can go out and vote,’ his son Bilal Ahmad said, adding that militants earlier targeted the family for voting but ‘ today the government is not holding elections’.

Bilal Ahmad further said that it has been a tough time for the family after terrorists killed his two brothers first and later the third brother was also killed.

According to the report National Conference, the major regional party, is largely seen as the ‘symbol of Indian democracy in Kashmir’.

As the party became a target of terrorists, Mohammad Sidique Wani and his family, its prominent face, turned out to be a target.

Five years of Central rule on, people including Wanis are wondering when the polls will be held in the state.