JAMMU: The much publicized inhalation of the political process in Jammu and Kashmir has received a severe jolt following the ChrarcSharief incident and the subsequent post Permanent of the proposed assembly elections. Many leaders and workers of the two main political parties in Kashmir namely the National Conference and the Congress have started fleeing the ley to the safe environs of Jammu and Delhi.
What is more, a number of grassroots workers have started dissociating themselves from the parties by ‘issuing advertisements in the local Newspapers of the valley.
The trend has picked up following an attempt on the life of Mian Altaf, a [prominent Congress leader and a son Mian Bashir, spiritual and political Yeader of Gujjar Muslims in the state, The jeep of Mian Altaf was blown up by/a landmine in which his two body guards along with him were Seriously injured. They were shifted to the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Delhi for treatment.
During the past two months, six leads and workers of the National Conference and a dozen former ministers and legislators of the party have been killed since the onset of militancy in the state. Various militant groups had warned political leaders and workers against participation in the elections, after the burning down of the ChrareSharief shrine. These groups had also directed the workers to publicly dissociate themselves from their parties by giving advertisements in the papers or face the consequences.
A National Conference teader, who recently fled from the valley, said that the political workers and general public were in the grip of fear following the ChrareSharief incident. “It was the greatest setback to the normalization process and all the gains of the past two years have gone down the drain and we are back to square one,” he added.
He alleged the Center for putting the lives of the political workers and their families in danger. The alienation of the people after the Chrar incident was complete, Either the Army should have saved the shrine, captured Mast Gul or withdrawn the seize, he said.
After the Chrar incident and escape of the militants led by major Mast Gul has again shown the invincibility of the foreign mercenaries to the people. The morale of those who were fed up with militants has been shattered and the fence sitters were forced in the lap of the militants by this incident.
The hopes of common man of getting rid of the corrupt bureaucratic rule have been dashed to the ground.
‘Most of the political parties and the leaders are also crying for the ouster of the Governor, General K.V. Krishna Rao (Fetd), his advisers and a total ‘overhaul of the administrative setup. In the Jammu region of the euphoria of the proposed elections has also withered. The politicians who, of late, had become very active are broken now. Many of aspirants for the tickets spent a sum of money in touring their ‘constituencies, making contacts with their electorates and community leaders.
Most of the political parties had finalized the panel of names of the prospective candidates from the Jammu region. A tug-of-war was on between two factions of the Congress in finalizing the panels. The BJP had more or less finalized their candidates.
Article extracted from this publication >> June 16, 1995
