Kashmir Elections

I had been pre-occupied with my father's illness and recovery and could not continue. By God's grace he is now stable.

I was watching with interest , the media coverage on Kashmir elections. The biggest news item being analyzed was neither PDP's loss not NC's lead, nor the decline of the Congress, but the "ominous rise of fundamentalist forces" ... ahem, they meant the BJP, nor the LeT or the PDP...

It may be noted that barring the odd mild protest on the PDP's pro-secessionist position, there was hardly a whimper of protest on their "right to self determination" position... I am sure the Election Commission was looking away askance, at the Dal Lake... and had clearly not looked into this worrying psoturing by the PDP.

On the contrary, the biggest arguements were reserved for the BJP's rise in Jammu region ( they won 11 seats). It was painted as a victory for the Amarnath Shrine zealots.... and that therefore " it has permenantly divided the valley along religious lines". Funny as it sounded to me, because if the NC or the PDP openly tout the cause of the Muslims that is being viewed as aceptable and Secular, whereas the BJP's vistory is straightaway being ascribed to the rise of an unfathomable faultline....

In my opinion, Arun Jaitley gave the right response, when he said that the people in Jammu were feeling highly "marginalized" , since all the attention and development money was going to the Kashimr valley and practically nothing for the Jammu and Ladakh regions. I think that is a very fair assessment, and that it is high time the authorities corrected this.