Assembly session in Jammu and Kashmir has opened with opposition combine of National Conference-Congress staging walkout, which has been the trade mark of the erstwhile opposition of BJP-PDP. It looks the NC-Cong combine has understood the intricacies of opposition politics—staging walkouts and keeping the House going without any business being conducted. The issues remained at the centre of controversies were removal of Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) and availability of ration. The opposition has been asking for the removal of AFSPA which they know cannot be revoked in the present circumstances. The issue of ration shortage is not new. The targeted segment never got the ration in time and in full quantity. The shortage was there even during the National Conference and Congress regime too. Government now has come out with a new excuse to provide advance ration of three months to consumers on the pattern of Punjab Government. It appears there are no issues on which walkouts could be staged but still the new opposition staged a walkout to just keep pressure on the government. Besides this the issue of regularisation of daily-wagers and other casual workers, who have put in more than two decades of casual service, still hangs in balance. Every time Assembly opens in Jammu and Srinagar these employees try to Gherao it leading to Lathi-charge and then disbursal. Getting involved in such cheap tactics political parties must be thinking of winning back the lost vote bank and voter will feel appeased to stand with them. In reality no political party has played music for the public entrainment but to fulfill their own political goals. The irony is the ruling combine of PDP-BJP too are yet to come out of the wrap of ‘opposition’. It is a situation of no-win, no-loss, except promises. Have such tactics ever brought the desired results?
