The pulls and pressures of forthcoming assembly elections are beginning to accentuate with the reflected impact of the suspenseful developments at the Centre. One has to only go by what the state politicians say about one other’s bona fides or look out for occasional leak from Delhi, like the recent prediction by an ex-chief of RAW, to appreciate how the stage is set for installing the chosen one. There is no scope for overlooking this historical inevitability. The size or stature of the selected/rejected person has nothing to do with the objective realities on the ground.

Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah was dethroned and imprisoned in 1953 despite having the full confidence of his hand-picked constituent assembly. 22 years later, in 1975, the very same Sheikh Abdullah was crowned again though he did not have any direct legislative support of his own and was not even a member of the state assembly. What had happened between 1953 and 3975 was that the Sheikh had traversed the wide canvas of post-1947 pol-itics, starting with the assertion of his strength and ending up with the appreciation of changed reality, to quote his correspondence with Indira Gandhi.

The reality, recognized by the Sheikh in 1975, continues to change even today and only in one direction. The tilt in the balance of power remains heavily biased against the state and the centre. It is not merely a constitutional proposition which is by now being taken for granted as a misnomer. The real signify can be of the adverse balance lies in the political domain to which the constitutional imperatives have invariably been subservient. There is, unfortunately, far too less realization of the debilitating impact of this perpetual anomaly on the growth, strength and capability of democratic processes in Jammu and Kashmir. That is one of the main reasons why the political class fails every time it is put to the test. Explosive fallout of the Amarnath Shrine land controversy is a case in the point. The mainstream parties, drawing their strength from the politico-constitutional traditions, found themselves pushed into the comer until they resigned to the inevitable and chose to swim along the tide. That was more an act of self survival than political action.

This aspect of the political scenario comes into sharper focus under the pulls and pressures of elections, like what is happening now. Somehow, the political scene, in Kashmir particularly, looks devoid of reality and hence lacking in credibility. The credibility gap is fatal to the long range prospects of-mainstream politics. This weakness is an easy target for the opposite side and often ends up in the electoral process itself being compromised for the sake of this or that contender. This feeling is deeply rooted in the popular perception, rightly or wrongly. There are statements made against and for each other. Now that the elections are once again around the corner, the political parties could not do without playing along the issues catering their self interests in the process.