Jammu, Jan 06: Prof Hari Om’s latest book “Jammu And Kashmir Assembly Elections 2024: The Future Ahead, The Way Forward” hit the stands on Monday. It covers the period between August 16, 2024 and November 8, 2024 and deals with the circumstances leading to the first-ever assembly elections in the Union Territory of J&K. It also throws light on the powers and functions of Lieutenant Governor and Union Territory Government. Besides, the book decodes the election manifestos of the Kashmiri parties, including National Conference, Peoples Democratic Party and Congress, and highlights the nature of relations among the INDI Alliance constituents. The book – apart from discussing the factors which helped BJP sweep the polarised Jammu and NC the polarised Kashmir – deals with the disturbing developments which unfolded between October 17 and November 8, 2024.
The book shows that the assembly elections further sharpened the fault lines between the Hindu majority Jammu province and the Muslim dominated Kashmir. “The mandate, on the one hand, mandated the Kashmir-based NC to form the first-ever government in the Union Territory and, on the other, vindicated those who all through maintained that the wedlock between Jammu province and Kashmir was unnatural and there was nothing whatsoever which was common between the two disparate regions. No wonder then that the NC once again established Kashmir’s hegemony over the State polity, notwithstanding its little presence in Jammu province. The result was that the already suffering Jammu once again remained out of the corridors of power,” the book has said.
The insistence of Kashmiri parties on Statehood and Darbar Move and the dangerous implications and what should the Narendra Modi Government do to address the issues facing the marginalised and discriminated against Jammu and avert the impending disasters in this strategic frontier region form the core of the book.
