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everythingkashmir · 2 months ago

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The glass ceiling that won’t break

By Faisul Yaseen

Despite much rhetoric about gender equality and women’s reservations by the major political parties, the distribution of mandates among the female folk in the J&K assembly polls points to their failure to walk the talk.

Among 902 contesting candidates for 90 assembly seats, only 42 women have got the mandate from political parties or are contesting independently – a total of just 4.65 percent of the total contesting.

This sad statistic is merely the beginning of a larger, more disturbing tale.

As it frames up with the major political actors in play including the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Congress, National Conference (NC), Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Peoples Conference (PC), Apni Party, and Democratic Progressive Azad Party (DPAP) into its fold, the statistics paint an even bleaker picture.

These mainstream parties have, together, fielded just eight women, or a meagre 0.89 percent of the total candidates contesting.

The BJP and Congress have fielded only one woman candidate each in J&K, while the NC has fielded three candidates, PDP two, Apni Party one, and PC and DPAP zero.

Compared with this, 21 women are contesting as independents and all the other parties in total are fielding 13 female candidates.

A total of 58 of the 90 constituencies do not have a single female candidate.

Another 22 constituencies have only one female candidate while seven constituencies can afford to watch two female contesting candidates.

Three female candidates are contesting a constituency in just two rare cases.

While the BJP and Congress have given tickets to only one female contestant each, who are both political newbies, NC has given mandate to a trio of women candidates including Sakina Masood (Itoo) and Shamima Firdaus, both of whom have experienced the turbulent storms of J&K politics, while only one is a newbie.

Similarly, among the two women contesting from the PDP, the party has fielded former legislator Asiea Naqash and Iltija Mufti, daughter of PDP President Mehbooba Mufti.

This is a classic case of elite capture rather than a commitment to gender parity as such.

A day after the Constitution (128th Amendment) Bill, to reserve 33 percent seats in the Lok Sabha and State Assemblies was cleared by both Houses of the Parliament, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said that the bill presaged a new “democratic commitment” in India.

However, the BJP giving the mandate to only one woman among the 90 assembly seats in J&K illustrates that the commitment remains unfulfilled.

Leader of Opposition (LoP) in Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi in his message on the 40th anniversary of the All India Mahila Congress (AIMC) said, “In a system often stacked against women, each one of you must fight for and stake your rightful share of social, economic, and political power.”

The fact that Congress has given its mandates to just one woman in J&K suggests that even the Congress party’s system too is stacked against women.

Speaking with reporters in central Kashmir’s Budgam district in September 2023, NC Vice President and former chief minister Omar Abdullah said, “Fifty percent of our population is our sisters and mothers. They should get a chance to become representatives of the people.”

Abdullah said that NC had no scarcity of female leaders of calibre.

However, why then did it only give the mandate to so few women is perplexing.

PDP President Mehbooba Mufti had welcomed the union cabinet’s decision to approve the Women’s Reservation Bill and termed it a great step.

“Having navigated the rough terrain of a predominantly male political landscape myself, I am happy to see that finally, the Women Reservation Bill will become a reality. We’re grossly underrepresented given that we form half of the population. Great step,” Mufti posted on microblogging site X.

However, having given the mandate to just her daughter besides an ex-legislator, Mehbooba and her PDP too seem rather unwilling to give meaningful representation to women.

Former chief minister Ghulam Nabi Azad had also congratulated the government on passing the Women’s Reservation Bill and said that it should have been passed 30 years back.

However, the fledgling party itself has not given mandate to even a single woman across J&K.

Apni Party leader Altaf Bukhari has been a vocal voice of 33 percent reservation for women in the J&K Legislative Assembly.

“Our party believes in real empowerment of women in J&K, and that dream will be realised when we have a considerable number of women lawmakers in our Legislative Assembly,” Bukhari said at a party function in Srinagar.

Why did his party then field only one female candidate across J&K?

For sure, in the corridors of power, perhaps the assurance of a 33 percent reservation for women may have come with more cheers and optimism.

However, the real question now is not so much if women can shatter the glass ceiling but whether the political establishment is ready to let them.

Greater Kashmir

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everythingkashmir · 2 months ago

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Non-playing captains take centre court

By Faisul Yaseen

It is a Wimbledon of words and non-playing captains are calling the shots.

Welcome to Kashmir’s political court where the non-playing captains do not touch a racquet, yet their every serve is scrutinised, every rally dissected.

Their juicy rhetoric and intricate political maneuvering on Kashmir’s electoral landscape have turned the campaign for the upcoming Jammu and Kashmir assembly elections into a fascinating spectacle.

Sitting on the sidelines, these veteran strategists, with decades of political acumen, are the true maestros of this championship, their players mere extensions of their game plan on the electoral court.

The forehand of the non-playing captain of National Conference (NC), Farooq Abdullah, a three-time chief minister and party’s president, is capable of wrong-footing even the most nimble opponent.

Playing at the centre court, his game is a potent mix of charisma and political savvy. A rallying force, his aura permeates alleyways and villages, his presence commanding crowds, as though every political rally he touches turns into a grand slam event.

His team may be the ones playing the game, but it is Abdullah’s forehand that sets the ball in motion.

NC spokesman Imran Nabi Dar says that the party revolves around Abdullah.

“He is a crowd puller and a mass mobiliser,” Dar says. “His aura is not limited to Jammu and Kashmir.”

Across the net stands Mehbooba Mufti, former chief minister and People’s Democratic Party (PDP) president, whose refusal to contest in the upcoming assembly polls is drenched in nostalgia for a time when Jammu and Kashmir’s special status was intact.

She coaches her players from behind the net, boosting their spirits, to compete on her behalf in this tense political game.

Her baseline strategy?

Stay off the court, but ensure her team is ready to smash through the opposition’s defences.

PDP Youth President and its candidate for south Kashmir’s Pulwama constituency, Waheed-ur-Rehman Parra says that while Mufti might not be contesting herself, she boosts the morale of the contesting candidates of the party as well as the PDP supporters.

“Everybody in the party wanted her to contest but she is not contesting because she believes that she was the chief minister of a state which had a special status…,” he says.

In Kashmir’s political court, where the art of the “drop shot” is less about finesse and more about dropping bombshells that reverberate across the Valley, the court is crowded with players from all corners of the political spectrum.

But this is no ordinary tournament.

While some non-playing captains are coaching their team players to serve aces, others are happy to let their squad members play from the baseline and hit backhand shots to win the bigger political rallies.

Ghulam Nabi Azad, leading the Democratic Progressive Azad Party (DPAP), brings his years of experience to bear, while the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)’s high command in New Delhi tosses policy decisions from afar, their influence felt with every backhand play.

BJP J&K unit’s General Secretary (Organisation) Ashok Kaul says that while senior leaders like Ram Madhav, Gangapuram Kishan Reddy, Ashish Sood, and Tarun Chugh are looking after the affairs of the party for the upcoming elections in J&K, the party high command including the BJP’s star campaigners Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah, and Defence Minister Rajnath Singh are reaching out to the voters to set the ball rolling.

Like the BJP high command, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi is also assuming the role of the non-playing captain for the Congress in J&K.

Senior Congress leader and former legislator Ghulam Nabi Monga says that Gandhi has a lot of love for the people of Kashmir.

“A sea of people – young and old, men, women and children, came to welcome him when he recently visited Kashmir while his Bharat Jodo Yatra was also impressive,” he says. “He is our star campaigner and connects well with the masses as he talks about Kashmir from the heart.”

Even from behind bars, Engineer Rashid, the incarcerated president of the Awami Ittehad Party (AIP), manages to make his presence felt on this political court.

His absence from the court itself only seems to amplify his political voice, bringing into sharp focus the unique nature of this high-stakes game.

Rashid’s son Abrar, who successfully led his campaign in the parliamentary polls and is now campaigning for the upcoming assembly polls, says the campaign not only in north Kashmir but also in south Kashmir is witnessing massive crowds.

“Yes, Rashid Sahab is the major factor in our campaign,” he says. “This is because he has tirelessly worked for the people.”

The match might have started at love-all but the rallies are getting longer and longer.

Meanwhile, the electorate watches with bated breath as the score teeters between advantage and deuce.

As the political grand slam unfolds in J&K, a single fault may be forgiven, but a double fault could cost the entire match.

With the final set approaching, the tension is palpable. Who will emerge victorious in this most unusual of championships? Will it be the seasoned veterans, their experience guiding them through the trickiest of tiebreaks? Or will a dark horse emerge, armed with a powerful serve of fresh ideas and grassroots support?

One thing is certain: in the grand arena of Kashmiri politics, where the lines between sport and statecraft blur, there is no such thing as a simple game. Here, every point is a policy, every set a mandate, and the match itself is nothing less than the future of the region.

October 8 will determine who wins the point, game, set, match, and this grand slam called Kashmir’s political theatre.

Greater Kashmir

#BaselineBattles #CentreCourtPolitics #ElectoralChampionship #GameSetKashmir #KashmirCampaign2024 #KashmirPoliticalCourt #MastersOfStrategy #NonPlayingCaptains #PoliticalAces #PoliticalGrandSlam #RhetoricRally #ServeAndScrutinize #SidelineStrategists #SpectacleOfStrategy #WimbledonOfWords

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