THE MAINSTREAM, THE LEFTOVER SEPARATISTS AND TRADE UNIONS
ALL TURNED BLIND EYE TO THE PEOPLE’S SUFFERINGS
Srinagar: May-28, 2021: For the last more than a year now people of Jammu & Kashmir are suffering badly because of the pandemic, its immediate fall out on the economy and squeezing of sources of earnings. Although, the government had no other option but to enforce a strict lockdown and confine the people to stay indoors, however, the government might have comprehended the fragile financial strength of the lower, lower middle and middle class people whose back bone had already cracked in the 6-7 month long complete lockdown attributed to the abrogation of Article 370, 35 A and downgrading of the state to 2 Union Territories. Since the majority of the population in the Union Territory is engaged in daily wage activities or small scale business and a major section of people earns its livelihood through tourist related trade and activities. But, unfortunately this sector too was forced to shut at a time when it had begun to bloom in July 2019. Although, the lockdown enforced by the government on August 1, 2019 was forced to implement its decision, but it wrecked the people and their confidence to start again, as the new dawn expected to grow here was eclipsed by the following continuous lockdowns enforced to stop the spread of Coronavirus. Neither during the earlier lock down which was completely the responsibility of the state for enforce a new law and new governing arrangement in J & K, nor this time when every country or even several Indian states came to the rescue of the people in the shape of free rationing etc.
Political parties, be it the mainstream brigade like National Conference, PDP, Peoples Conference or Congress and the Separatist parties APHC and others, who have been exploiting the sentiments of the people during elections or even at times to hold rallies assemblies and protest demonstrations against the ruling parties or the during this present dispensation, but despite having amassed huge resources they didn’t come forward to help the desperate people for help. National Conference and PDP have been claiming their strength being at grassroots level, but when the people needed their leaders like Farooq Abdullah, Omer Abdullah, Mehbooba Mufti, Sajjad Lone, Yousf Tarigami, Altaf Bukhari and many others, these self styled supremo’s preferred to stay indoors on the plea to protect themselves from Covid. Same has been in the case of a few separatist leaders like Molvi Umar, Prof Gani, Bilal lone and others, who didn’t make any efforts to organize their volunteers to come to the rescue of the people.
These leaders, who have in past exploited the sentiments and sought sacrifices from common people to keep their own empires in-tact, manage their families to live king-size lives but didn’t make any effort in helping the people in miserable situations. These leaders have been pleading their isolation for self-safety, but who was there to lead this headless community in this grave situation. The leaders are meant to find out ways and means to deal with this kind of emergencies, lead their volunteers to comfort the common people, but the leaders failed their own people at this hour of crises. This is necessary to mention here that during the earlier lockdown of August 2019, all these leaders were taken into custody under public safety act, so it was not possible for them to extend any support. No one can raise any question about the self safety of these leaders, but there are thousands of Covid warriors in medical, cleaning of hospitals, cities and towns, media professionals, security personal and several other categories of the society, who have been risking their lives to save the lives of other natives. If all these people can volunteer themselves for others, why can’t our leaders lead these operations in a better and coordinated way. You can’t leave everything to the mercy of government.
There are thousands of Non Government Organizations (NGO’s) registered by government and are getting regular funds from different government and non-government aid agencies from withing and outside countries to work in this kind of situations. But a few NGO’s are visible in and around hospitals confined to supplement the medical supplies only. But, no NGO has been visible to the people working in human need areas where people desperately need the food products, medical supplies for the patients other than covid-19 as this pandemic and continuous lock down has destabilized even the strong lower and middle class families who doesn’t afford now to buy food and medicines. The NGO’s who have projected their role to support in such natural calamities, must have come on ground zero volunteer to comfort needy people.
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