Rameez Makhdoomi
The Jammu and Kashmir People’s Democratic Party one of the prominent state-level mainstream political party in Jammu and Kashmir, India. It was founded in 1999 by the former Union Home Minister, Mufti Mohammed Sayeed, and was voted to power in the state of Jammu and Kashmir in October 2002 assembly elections. Since 2004 it has had one member each in the LokSabha and in the RajyaSabha. It was a member of the ruling United Progressive Alliance until the 2009 elections.
People’s Democratic Party is presently headed by Ms Mehbooba Mufti, while Mufti Mohammad Sayeed, who headed the PDP-Congress Coalition Government between October 2002 and November 2005, is the party’s Patron.
A lot was promised by Party and the popularity graph also grew substantially and it provided a tough challenge for the other mainstream parties especially the ruling National Conference ( NC) and within no time reached the corridors of power as it formed government on rotational Chief Minister basis with congress party. Even in 2008 elections the party bagged impressive number of seats.
Pertinently, PDP is still known for taking several historical steps like disbanding of the notorious Ikhwanis who were also known as pro-government gunmen highly infamous for committing gross human rights violations .The party is also known for carrying out several developmental projects and playing an important part in ‘once famous peace process between India-Pakistan’.
But now from quiet sometime it looks visibly clear that People’s Democratic Party has lost much of its sheen as many think that party has not been forcefully able to take up the crucial issues like rise in Human Rights violations in Kashmir and day to day issues of common man in the state.
But now from quiet sometime it looks visibly clear from ground analysis that People’s Democratic Party is losing much of its sheen as many think that party has not been forcefully able to take up the crucial issues like rise in Human Rights violations in Kashmir and day to day issues of common man in the state.
Sometime back the party received big setback when the ruling National Conference-Congress coalition in Jammu and Kashmir won all four seats in the state legislative council from the Panchayat reserved quota polling for which was held Dec 3, 2012.
In the Kashmir Valley, NC candidate Ali Muhammad Dar defeated his nearest PDP rival Peer Muhammad Hussain by 2,900 votes while Ghulam Nabi Moonga of the Congress won over his PDP rival YasirReshi by over 2500 votes.
In Jammu region, both the coalition candidates, Shahnaz Ganai of the regional NC (by a margin of 6,917 votes) and Sham Lal Bhagat of the Congress (by 7,285 votes) defeated their nearest Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) rivals.
Even the rivals are not feeling much worried about the challenge of PDP in future electoral battles. Recently in an exclusive interview with The Kashmir Scenario ,NasirAslamWani, Provincial President & senior leader of National Conference on being asked by Rameez Makhdoomi -How stiff will be the challenge from People’s Democratic Party in upcoming electoral battles especially the big one of 2014? NasirAslam replied –“Honestly speaking, we would be happy to get a good challenge from the main opposition party, but I would like to state that in 2014 electoral battle, I see PDP nowhere in picture. I am not making a mere assertion but this is based on ground facts as since its inception PDP has been highly inconsistent and pragmatically not followed any policy permanently.”
Mushtaq Ul-Haq Ahmad Sikander, a Political analyst and Writer states – “PDP since its inception tried to play card of soft separatism, be it on the issue of the disbanding of infamous and notorious STF or establishing new universities in Muslim majority areas of J&K state. This soft separatism reached its zenith when it took away the support from its coalition partner Congress in the wake of 2008 Amarnath Land Row Agitation. In Kashmir there are only extreme strands of political affiliation, i.e. Pro Establishment or Pro Indian and Anti-Establishment or Pro Azadi. What PDP is trying to do is to create a space among these two extreme discourses and there it fails miserably. In Kashmir you can’t at both times be Pro-India and Pro-Kashmiri. Hence this soft separatism is responsible for the crisis and chaos within PDP. Also the present stance of boycotting the assembly sessions have depicted that it certainly has failed to play its role as a strong opposition party. It also in capacity of being the main opposition has failed to project in forceful manner the killing of number of youngsters in 2008, 2010, 2013 allegedly in police and security forces firing and other burning issues.
” But PDP supporters and sympathizers tend to disagree and maintain party is still a leading political force. Ilyas Ahmad, a social worker and vivid PDP Sympathizer states-“I don’t believe that PDP has lost any ground, but on the other side the failures of present government led by National Conference have been so many that life of people of Jammu & Kashmir has been made miserable. Even in state legislative council from the Panchayat reserved quota polling for which was held Dec 3, 2012, the party emerged as formidable political force as it was fighting on its own.PDP is growing at an impressive pace and would surely form the next government.”
But, many voices undoubtedly are currently of view that the People’s Democratic Party as a party needs lot of dedicated efforts for ground covering that has been lost in the recent times if it wants to be a power to reckon with in the 2014 electoral battle.