Srinagar: Notwithstanding the enthusiasm shown by political parties to campaign for their candidates in the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly elections, which has already been set into motion with the issuance of notification for the first of the five phase polls, the local people are still indifferent towards the polls as they are struggling to come out of the devastation caused by the floods.
Meanwhile, separatist leaders, including chairmen of both the factions of the Hurriyat Conference, who have given poll boycott call, were either put under house arrest or taken into custody during the past one week.
Despite the devastation caused by the most ferocious floods the state has seen in a century, all political parties, except National Conference (NC), were in favour of holding elections on time as the term of present Assembly ends in early January 2015.
However, political parties, who favour election on time, alleged NC's opposition to polls was politically motivated. According to opposition parties including Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), the NC has failed to provide any relief to the people affected by the flood, now wanted to defer polls and buy time to regain its credibility among the masses.
The political parties even alleged that the decision by the state Cabinet to hold examinations in the Valley in 2015 March was also politically motivated.
"Education Minister and Deputy Chief Minister Tara Chand had announced that examination will be conducted in November 2014 as per schedule, and on the same day the Cabinet committee, which met under the chairmanship of Chief Minister Omar Abdullah, overruled the decision of Chand and declared that the examination will be held in March. It was a well calculated move by the government, to show that the valley in neither ready for examinations nor for elections," they alleged.
The allegation was, however, rejected by the ruling party. "Our party had asked EC to postpone the elections in the state as people are still trying to come out of the devastation caused by the floods," NC general secretary Ali Mohammad Sagar said.
Meanwhile, many people are questioning the eagerness of other political parties - including PDP, CPI (M), Congress and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) - who were in favour of holding elections on time.
"These political parties were missing when people were battling for their lives following floods. Now they want election on time because they know people are angry with the NC. They don't care if we live or die, they just care about their votes," Tanveer Ahmad Mir, a resident of Natipora in Srinagar, said.
Despite tall claims by the state government that rehabilitation work is going on war footing, the situation on the ground is entirely different. "We haven't received any help from the state government. I was living in a rented apartment in Padshahi Bagh, all the house hold things were completely destroyed. But, still date I haven't received any help from the local administration," alleged Mohammad Ashraf.
"I'm thankful to local NGOs, who gave us some bedding and essential commodities," he added.
Meanwhile, under the grab of flood relief, political parties are now distributing relief material among the people, indirectly, trying to woo them in favour of their candidates.
A BJP leader openly admitted in a television interview that he on behalf of his party has distributed relief material in south Kashmir. He said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi was keen to help the flood affected people in Kashmir and has directed the party to send relief material here.
However, the flood-hit people expressed disappointment over the alleged cold shoulder given by Modi during his visit to the Valley on Diwali. "We were hopeful that Modi will fill our lives with light as he was visiting the Valley on Diwali, the festival of light, but we were disappointed," Shafeeq Ahmad, a resident of Rajbah, said.
Similarly it is being alleged that relief material worth crores of rupees which has been sent by NGOs and other individuals has been dumped by political parties and they are planning to use it during the electioneering to woo the voters.
Demanding an investigation into the distribution of relief material received by the state from other states and abroad, Valley Citizen Council (VCC) general secretary Imdad Saqi said this could be verified from the airport where the relief material landed.
"Hundreds of families are still living in tents or rented rooms in the flood affected areas in the Valley, who are least bothered about polling. They want shelter to save themselves from the winter cold," Saqi said.
However, the situation in some remote and far flung areas, where there was no flood, is different. Though they too suffered due to rain and hailstorm, but they have been attending election rallies at some places.
(Abid Soffi is Managing Editor, Kashmir Pioneer, based in Srinagar.)
Comments
0 comment