What is happening and what did he vote for….
At the end of a discussion with one of my well-wishers, we concluded, come what may, this land is destined to be governed by none other than politician-capitalist nexus, where there is no role, whatsoever, left for a common man. This can be too harsh a conclusion, but after a long deliberation a small fry of my little standing is convinced that certainly average Kashmiri has no say in managing the affairs of this state.
September 2014 floods exposed the whole gamut of our preparedness to handle the fury. At the end of the day it was only the common man who was hit harder and is yet to reconcile with the aftermath of floods. These floods taught us many lessons and the most prominent of all that Aam Admi was taken for granted. No empathy of real sense was shown towards lesser mortals.
The situation of anger and discrimination initiated a desire for equality and justice, culminating into change in political guard. The political predicament and ill-timed elections gave way to a fractured mandate for ‘share and share alike’ situation by an alliance of parties’ poles apart from each other politically and ideologically.
This all happened in a jiffy with limited options of choice. Anyways, a dispensation of hope and justice got framed after a long spell of discrimination and interminable mutilation of aspirations. The rich, so-called elite, pseudo intellectuals, sycophants and soft spoken exploiters, who, over the period of time made a hell out of poor people in tandem with hided politicians were about to get decimated.
And as after every dark night there is a great hope for dawn, the people of this ill-fated land wished to rewrite their political fate on a different canvas. They put their bet on a dispensation that they thought will be free from any discrimination against the underprivileged and favours towards rich and mighty. The common-man tried to create a world of his own—a world of aspirations, evenhandedness and above all a participatory system of governance where he can have say and a patient hearing.
But, unfortunately like flood waters the hope of Aam Admi seem to be getting dashed much quicker. Common-man appears to be getting the big kick of disapproval, the usual shock he experiences every time at the conclusion of much hyped procedure of franchise. Used as gunpowder for political canons and at the end reduced to mere dust and his aspirations smoked out into the oblivious environs of despair.
Common man pushed to the wall, cursing his fate; trying to come out of desperate aftermath of floods and nursing his wounds of discrimination feels disparaged. And the rich and mighty who never ever feel it convenient to participate in the process of change are trying to take the center stage and as usual become party to power. These whole lots of indignities if not contained well in time will make people desperate as they find their crusade against discrimination and injustice hijacked by an oligarchy.
After more than a month’s haggle a brief but a reasonable spell of governance, struggling hard to make some visible change on ground, unknowingly facilitates relegation of lesser mortals to their condemned area of neglect. Such situation will ultimately give traditional sycophants, opportunists and exploiters an affable atmosphere to change their loyalties and invade the corridors of power with impunity. Thus opportunists are on usual prowl! They are influencing policies and mindset of the dispensation to ensure freehand in fleecing the deprived.
A peep into the corridors of power reveals a lot about the shadows of coming events. While the mighty are scheming to make inroads into power corridors, the common-man standing in long queues with a hope for never opening doors to open. While the influential make hay in political sunshine the deprived will surely be made to eat the humble pie. We seem to be getting consigned to square one, where rich and the mighty have the say, where flatterers are morphing the dispensation to their choice so as to safeguard their existence and interests.
Thus, once again the common man seems to be in a dilemma, arranging to rethink about shape and contours of his fate which he tried to cast only a few months back. But he knows he has to accept a long wait of six years and then try his hand to carve out his aspirations afresh.