Simply put, a political vacuum in a democratic setup, is a type of leadership crisis. It is a condition in which the existing politicians or popular representatives have lost their power to rule the people due to various reasons. Generally, it is a transitory state with no fixed period.
Whenever there occurs a political vacuum anywhere in the world, it is quite common that all kinds of people and interests show a tendency to rush in to fill that vacuum. It may be a civil dictator who comes in and fills the vacuum by establishing a dictatorship, a military takeover, or a more vibrant democratic rule than the previous one.
In the context of Jammu and Kashmir, two years of no popular government and the perpetual sulk in politics, post abrogation of Article 370, have led to the creation of a political vacuum. When we look into the recent history of the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir, the current scenario appears to have only resurfaced an earlier void which had been dealt with quick fixes.
And as we are again in the middle of a political vacuum, there is a need to realize that this transitory vacuum provides us with yet another opportunity to relook and reform our politics. It is an opportunity to give up the lenses of vested interests and dirty politics, to look beyond quick-fix-solutions and stage managing. It is time to collectively work for a peaceful and democratic Jammu and Kashmir.
There are various aspects which I believe should convince us all that we don’t need new political parties rather we need the existing or traditional political parties like National Conference (NC), People Democratic Party (PDP), Congress(INC) and Bhartiya Janta Party (BJP) to stand up to the occasion and deliver.
The traditional parties and their leaders, over many years, have managed to gain strong social support. People for years have invested their trust, money, and time in these parties and their leadership. They are enduring political parties with historical roots. However, the new front being pushed in can never match the highly institutionalized and organized character of the traditional parties.
It will not be as regionally-coherent as the traditional parties and therefore it will be less democratic and less representative in nature. The new front would not be anything more than a ‘new quick fix’ because it risks the creation of vacuums of its own. New fronts with their inefficiency and inexperience and lack of popular consent are disastrous for sustainable peace and democratic order.
Political parties like NC and PDP besides running the affairs of government at different times also acted as a buffer between the people of Jammu and Kashmir and the rest of India. And it is as hard as it gets to find replacements for buffers in politics because you cannot cherry-pick people to act as buffers. They ought to at least have some degree of acquiescence if not the avowed consent of the people. If there is any reasonable success at all, in the political landscape of J&K, it has been achieved only by parties like NC and PDP. Had there been no NC and PDP, the landscape would be different.
Moreover, the crux of a democratic transition or constitutional reform is not the undoing of these traditional parties, but rather the transformation of the system around these. The Central Government should act as a protagonist and support political movements and reforms for stable politics and government in Jammu and Kashmir. The people should also repose their hopes and trust back with traditional leadership.
Finally, introspection on part of the traditional leadership is imperative to effective forward movement. The traditional leadership needs to be more flexible in the face of changing circumstances. Overweening in self-confidence is always disastrous.
Those impetuous and over-excited need to settle down. The leadership as a whole failed to recognize that they had to accommodate their personalities to the exigencies of the times instead of trying to reshape their times in the mould of their personalities. It is said times are more powerful than our brains.
Wayne Dyer’s famous words, “If you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change” are tailored for the persistently agonizing situation of Jammu and Kashmir politics. If it has to witness a complete paradigm shift in its political consciousness before some sort of progress is made, the acceptance of the current situation as a realistic point of departure could be the first step towards the distant goals of peace, progress, prosperity, and stability.