Yawar Hussain
Gupkar Declaration Signatories addressing a joint press conference after meeting at National Conference President Dr Farooq Abdullah’s residence on Thursday, October 15, 2020. KL Image by Bilal Bahadur
The exit of the People’s Conference has seemingly left the PAGD adrift. The five-party alliance including big players like National Conference and Peoples Democratic Party have not met for nearly two months now.
Seemingly, the PAGD is disinterested in the elections to the chairpersons and vice-chairpersons which they have lost in six out of 13 where they had the mandate when results were declared on December 22 last year. The alliance also hasn’t appointed a new official spokesperson since Sajad Gani Lone left.
Yawar Hussain
explains the spectacle in wake of historic realties
A cartoon by Kashmir’s legendary cartoonist BAB saying the PADG would fight for 370, then will fight elections and will eventually fight within.
With Kashmir’s traditional rivals in politics joining hands post 5/8 to form Peoples’ Alliance for Gupkar Declaration (PAGD), the fault lines separating their turfs refuse to dissipate despite the leadership bonhomie. Throughout the post-partition history, the rivals have fed their followers with so much hate against each other that now political identities at ground zero defy the leadership.
There is a groundswell of support in PAGD’s favour but it is so wavering in certain areas that it can upset the calculations of top Kashmir parties. PAGD leaders admit they had not envisioned it. There are rebellions within the parties. At countless places, a PAGD candidate is in the contest against proxy candidates of the PAGD constituents.