In J & K Fingers are Crossed

After the successful conclusion of the first phase of Assembly Elections in Jammu and Kashmir there is a new lease of political life among the various players who are contesting in these long awaited polls. Assembly Elections in Jammu and Kashmir have always caught the national and international gaze for different reasons. If the national curiosity was to see who will provide peace and stability in the erstwhile princely state then the international community wanted to ensure India’s democratic competence to deal with the ethno-religious conflict that has won India both friends and foes alike. It is no secret now that there has been a concerted effort from various international players to weaken the Indian position in Jammu and Kashmir to bail out Pakistan and tilt the balance in its favour. There are reasons for it. Strong India does not suit these foreign powers and weak India gives them ample opportunity to subjugate the Indian periphery to control South-Asia to re-impose imperialism. These powers fully internalise the importance of the Himalayas and they know if they can breach it then there is ample scope to dismember India. In this nefarious design they have been supporting subversion through various means to destabilise Jammu and Kashmir. Pakistan emerged as a tool to materialise this design. But these foreign powers developed their strategies based on a short memory of history. They didn’t realise that India is not a recent nation. It is a civilizational nation that has withstood the external forces from time to time. Partition of India fuelled the myth that India can be balkanised. And the two nation theory and its patrons felt that they could ignite Jammu and Kashmir and catalyse the balkanisation of India. But it boomeranged. The more India has established itself as the fast developing nation the more these fissiparous tendencies go on the back foot. In fact they are trying to mend ways with India. During the cold war when religious radicalism was used to fight the cold war in Afghanistan and the US kept finances and weapons at the disposal of the Pakistani Army and its ISI, little was it realised that it would create an inferno for Pakistan and its people. Leading to consume its people and society in the end. Not only had that. It earned it the brand name of a terrorist state that uses terrorism as its state policy. India has managed to restore its democratic functioning and repair the lives of its people in Jammu and Kashmir though it has paid a heavy price with numberless people being killed by the terror modules and lakhs of people losing their home and homeland due to internal displacement. But it is the strength of its democracy that it has limped back to normalcy. Today after the first phase of Assembly Elections when people are waiting for the second phase of polls there is an atmosphere of hope that vote will bring change and channelize anger into energy of prosperity for the bright future of the people. Whatever may be the poll outcome, whosoever will emerge as the kingmaker-one thing is clear that will channelize the energies of the street into peaceful Jammu and Kashmir. A new generation of youth in Jammu and Kashmir want to be contributors to the national resurgence and make a difference as the law-abiding citizens of a democratic nation. Successful culmination of this Assembly Election will send a strong signal to the international community that people of Jammu and Kashmir have defeated the bullet with the power of ballot. For the time being fingers are crossed .The outcome of this Assembly Election will redefine and reinvent many political permutations and combinations in Jammu and Kashmir.