Mehbooba’s about-turn

MEHBOOBA Mufti’s unwillingness to hold the long-pending panchayat elections in J&K has confirmed that the ruling combine is adamant on denying grassroots democracy in a state yearning for governance. This exposes the double standards of the government as it cherry picks issues listed in its governance document — Agenda of Alliance (AoA) — and ignores those of concern to a large chunk of population. It appears that governance is being shelved for political issues. Mehbooba’s demurring is a breach of trust not only with the people, but also a complete reversal from her lofty commitment to empower the third tier of governance to enable Panchayati Raj institutions to discharge their statutory functions effectively and efficiently by giving them functional roles and fiscal responsibilities. 

The indefinite pegging back of the elections is a bad omen for a state where the whole concept of democracy has been reduced to the holding of Assembly polls. Parliamentary bypoll to Anantnag constituency has been pending since Mehbooba vacated the seat after getting elected to the Assembly in June last year. There is an inherent contradiction in the state government’s premise that the atmosphere is not conducive for the polls. This flies in the face of the government claims that the situation has improved vastly this year as compared to the street turbulences of last year after the killing of militant commander Burhan Wani.

Now that the Centre has initiated a dialogue and given the green signal to discharge stone-throwers, people should not be kept waiting endlessly for elected panchayats to address their developmental and day-to-day issues. It may not be incorrect to surmise that the government has succumbed to the resistance by some quarters availing of powers and privileges in the absence of the grassroots democratic institutions. The oddity becomes stark as this process was withdrawn after the CM had committed to the Centre that the poll process will begin by December 1. Mehbooba is visiting different districts as part of her “outreach” programme but that would be a futile exercise until the process of a three-tier governance system is first put in place.