Omkar Dattatray
ECI has announced the schedule and dates for the assembly polls in five states which are going to be held as per the announcement of the EC .However the chief election commissioner (CEC) has said in a press conference that assembly polls in Jammu and Kashmir will be held at the right time after taking into account the security scenario of the UT and as deemed fit by the election commission .Jammu and Kashmir is under the central rule from the last over five years and the UT is ruled by the center’s representative the LG .But the political parties, their leaders and the common people want immediate elections of the assembly so that there can be a popular government in place in Jammu and Kashmir which will heal the wounds of the alienated people and will also come up to the expectation of common masses .With the statement of the election commissioner of India that assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir will be conducted at the right time ,it has become crystal clear that neither the government of India ,nor its election commission is in favor of holding elections in near future.BJP is sensing defeat in the polls in Jammu and Kashmir ,when these will be held and thus is reluctant and indifferent towards the holding the assembly polls .Now the ECI also is not in favor of holding the much delayed assembly polls and so has it said that the elections in Jammu and Kashmir will be held at the right time and one does not understand what the right time means and so it seems that in near future there seems no possibility of conducting the assembly polls .The ECI has said that the decision to hold assembly polls in Jammu and Kashmir will taken after considering the security scenario and the elections will be held at the right time .The expression of right time is vague and indefinite .Moreover the definition of the right time is very ambiguous .There is several parameters to define the right time and the right time has many interpretations .What is right time to the centre government and the ECI will not be the right time to the political parties and people both of these demand immediate assembly elections so that a democratically elected government is installed which will prove to be a panacea for all problems and ills of the people .The expression right times implies that the assembly elections will not be held in near future .It seems that the election commission of India is hand in glove with the center government and both talk the same thing that the assembly polls will be held at the right time .The expression right time is impregnable with many interpretations and it points towards the fact that centre government headed by the BJP and the election commission does not favor early assembly polls and thus have the both said that elections will be held at the right time .The expression right time is vague and uncertain because what is right time to the centre government and ECI may not be the right time to the political parties ,regional politicians and to the general public .Centre and the UT government is shouting at the top of their voice and day in and day out that the situation in Jammu and Kashmir read Kashmir is normal and the militancy is counting its days and is at its last leg .If there is normalcy in Kashmir ,then why is the centre government delaying ,dallying the assembly elections .There seems to be contradiction in the statements and perception of the BJP government as on one side they talk that the ground situation post abrogation of article 370 is normal and conducive and then what forces and prevents the centre government and the election commission to hold the much delayed assembly polls in Jammu and Kashmir .It seems that either the government of India and the LG’s administration is speaking wrong and untruth so far as the security scenario of Jammu and Kashmir is concerned or they do not like to give the orphaned and alienated people of Jammu and Kashmir ,their right to vote and thus denies this fundamental right to them .Centre government wants to perpetuate the central rule in Jammu and Kashmir and thus they are not in favor of the early assembly elections. The centre government has robbed the people of Jammu and Kashmir of their right to vote and form a popular ,democratic and peoples government .If the situation in Jammu and Kashmir is fast returning to normalcy and when the countdown of the militancy has begun ,then the centre government and the ECI should take off their biased blinkers and announce the early schedule of holding assembly polls and this is a good service to democracy otherwise democracy and democratic rights of the people of Jammu and Kashmir will continue to be stifled .There is urgent need to restore electoral democracy in Jammu and Kashmir by empowering the people by giving them the right to vote which has been snatched from them from the last over five years .Thus there is urgent need to hold the assembly elections so that the people of Jammu and Kashmir will cast their vote and chose their representatives who will form the democratic government .But the centre government and the election commission seem to be reluctant to hold the assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir and thus both state ifs and buts and say that the polls will be held at the right time .People of Jammu and Kashmir wonder when will that right time come so that they will cast their vote and elect the government of their choice in Jammu and Kashmir .Centre government and the election commission is in no mood to hold the much delayed assembly polls in Jammu and Kashmir to empower the alienated people of the UT with the right to vote .The constitution has guaranteed its citizens with the right to vote as a democratic right ,but alas the BJP’s centre government and the election commission is obstructing and denying them this sacred right and thus the UT of Jammu and Kashmir is without a popular and democratic as well as people’s government for the last over five years .The political parties both regional and national except the ruling BJP are very much disturbed by the remarks of the ECI that assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir will be held at the right time by considering the security scenario .That right time will perhaps not come in near future and the UT will continue to be ruled by proxy of the centre government and the democracy and the people of Jammu and Kashmir will have to bear the brunt of continued central rule where there is no connect between the rulers and the ruled .In short the ECI should take an early call and announce the schedule of the assembly polls which political parties and the general public demand most vociferously .Excuses and ifs and buts have no justification and the assembly elections should be held in the sensitive UT .Even the supreme court of the country has opined that democracy cannot be denied to the people of Jammu and Kashmir permanently .The time is opportune for holding the much delayed assembly polls and the ECI should step in and issue schedule of the assembly polls in Jammu and Kashmir and restore democracy in the UT.
(The author is a columnist ,social and KP activist).
