THE ASSEMBLY polls in Jammu & Kashmir and Haryana came about collectively, however their outcomes are momentous in several methods. In J&Okay, there’s a have to pause on the election itself earlier than taking inventory of the end result. In any case, this contest got here after a decade of electionlessness within the erstwhile state and 5 years after it was stripped of its particular standing by the abrogation of Article 370 and break up into two Union Territories. The Supreme Courtroom laid down a deadline, the Centre revered it and the Election Fee stepped as much as the problem of holding an election, regardless of the surge of violence within the Jammu area. Now the Nationwide Convention’s exceptional achievement — it has held collectively via nice adversity and in alliance with the Congress, crossed the midway mark — should take second place to the belief reposed within the energy of the vote by the J&Okay citizens. Commendably, and in a constitutional democracy, hearteningly, the folks of J&Okay have forged apart narratives of alienation and boycott politics and embraced a brand new consensus on political participation and electoral engagement.
In Haryana, the BJP has coursed to a historic third consecutive win in a state that isn’t a conventional bastion. Its victory, solely months after the unambiguous setback within the Lok Sabha verdict in June, speaks of the occasion’s skill to get again on its toes once more and go for the win. For college kids of Indian politics, it’s a cautionary story — this nation’s politics retains its skill to spring a shock. However it appears that evidently the story of the Haryana election shouldn’t be but over even after the votes have been counted — and therein lies a second cautionary story.
THE CONGRESS occasion has taken a step that’s as unprecedented as it’s weird. It has turn into the primary mainstream occasion to query an election end in an electoral system deservedly applauded for its streamlined equipment and impeccable credibility. That the Congress is imputing that the Haryana election was lower than free and honest is outrageous. It speaks of a sore loser and, far more than that, an irresponsible stakeholder.
In a system during which candidates who’ve misplaced by slim margins, and even by one vote, haven’t questioned the equity of both the umpire or the electoral mechanisms, the Congress’s unchecked flailing is enormously disturbing and an enormous self-goal. Rahul Gandhi’s occasion must take a step again from its second of defeat. It should ask itself if its excessive petulance is doing itself, and the individuals who vote for it, a grave disservice. Because the main Opposition occasion on the Centre, which additionally leads governments in three states, it sick behoves it to refuse to respect the end result simply because it has gone towards its ambitions and expectations. To make issues extra absurd, two distinguished Haryana Congress leaders, Bhupinder Singh Hooda, additionally the face of its marketing campaign, and chief ministerial wannabe, Kumari Selja, have conceded defeat, at the same time as their occasion’s central management challenges the end result.
AS THE Congress conjures up spectres and focuses on conspiracy theories in Haryana, it dangers shedding sight of the duty it shares with the Nationwide Convention in J&Okay. Right here, the onerous work of politics and governance lies forward.
It is going to embrace arduous negotiations inside the structural constraints. The Lieutenant Governor was given a job bigger than the meeting by the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act 2019; current amendments to the transaction guidelines have elevated the already appreciable powers of the Centre’s nominee. Delhi, the one different UT with a legislature, has showcased the harm that may be wreaked by fixed attrition between the elected authorities and the unelected constitutional functionary.
In an interview in August, on the event of the fifth anniversary of the abrogation of Article 370, J&Okay L-G Manoj Sinha informed this newspaper: “I’ll work in the direction of reaching a superb stability with the elected authorities to attain peace, prosperity and growth… If that is the target, then the place is the potential for a conflict?” Omar Abdullah, who did nicely to alter his thoughts on coming into the electoral race — he had informed this paper, additionally in August: “I’ve been… the CM of the (as soon as) most empowered state. I can’t see myself ready the place I must ask the L-G for appointing my peon” — might want to maintain the L-G to his phrases. And as his ally, the Congress might want to assist him to do this.
By giving in to its personal worst instincts in Haryana, the Congress might be abdicating its alternative in J&Okay, the place sobriety and sagacity are demanded of it as a accomplice within the new authorities, which should deal with the folks’s excessive expectations even because it possesses truncated powers.
IT MUST be hoped that the Congress will retrace its steps on the perilous path it set out on, on Tuesday. In Haryana, as a substitute of quarreling with the decision, it must ask itself some powerful questions. Whereas the Lok Sabha verdict gave its hopes a leg-up, it might have overread it. It could have sought to counter the BJP’s Hindutva attraction with a crude caste politics, that sought to attract us-and-them strains deeper, as a substitute of constructing bigger coalitions, and smudging id politics, if not transcending it.
The Congress misplaced in Haryana, and has an opportunity to manipulate in J&Okay, and the earlier it will get all the way down to its work in each states, the higher for it. And for the BJP, the beautiful Haryana triumph and the wholesome exhibiting in Jammu imply that the highway forward from the Lok Sabha verdict in the direction of Maharashtra and Jharkhand all of the sudden appears much less uphill.
