Dinesh Kamath's Editorial 'People’s interest should come above any political party’s interest' that was published in Newsband

People’s interest should come above any political party’s interest

The Bharatiya Janata Party speaks for all Hindus in Jammu, and the Peoples Democratic Party represents all Muslims in Kashmir. The attitude of the BJP-led government at the Centre towards the PDP-led government in Jammu and Kashmir is being watched by all the political pundits.  

PDP president Mehbooba Mufti has communicated to BJP president Amit Shah that the alliance would be untenable without the special financial package for J&K, which was meant to generate jobs and rebuild infrastructure in the State, affected by natural calamities and terror. But the problem is while BJP leaders would want a substantial part of the package to be spent in Jammu, the PDP leaders are hoping the package would be mostly to revive Kashmir’s economy.

Centre seems to hesitate to give any package to J & K to prevent conflict between BJP and PDP. Now the question is not whether the package would strengthen or worsen PDP-BJP relations but whether the people of J&K get a package that is large, equitable and just. All political parties see development programme through their political prism. The first question asked is whether their party will benefit by implementing such program. If not, drop it. All political parties should get out of this mindset and get involved in all-round development of people in a rational manner.

The package should serve to bolster the economy of the state and not merely the interests of the BJP in Jammu or PDP. It is the people who would benefit from it.

Once the alliance is formed on the common minimum program, parties should adhere to that irrespective of the situation. The problem with the alliance between BJP and PDP is that both parties have exactly opposite target audience. Something drastic should be done to ensure that both parties have consensus on any issue.

Politicians are only interested in the perks of power. Even when a political party has full majority in any State, there is very little or no development but full of "scams" benefitting only those in power or those around them. The assets of politicians increase every five years by anywhere between 30% and 500 %. This is what is officially declared when filing their candidacies. This has been the situation for the last sixty eight years. We need serious electoral reforms if we are to obtain good governance and make any progress. In India we only talk. There is very little action.

Political parties put their interests before the interests of the electorate who brought them to power. It becomes extremely difficult to pacify the interest of parties in States where there is a coalition. Kashmir, a territory torn apart by terrorism for nearly four decades and now in the eye of the storm due to climatic hazards is in urgent need of rehabilitation. To achieve this goal the squabbling between PDP and BJP should stop first and foremost.

The time is rife for the parties to set aside their differences and work together to live up to the aspirations of the people and strengthen their trust on democracy. This will also prevent the youth of the region from being bait to secessionist groups.