Is PDP riding high on overconfidence?? SYED TAJAMUL BM IMRAN Our ears are accustomed to a famous phrase “Overconfidence kills”. We might have heard it many times and is commonly used as an underlining statement. The hardest part is that sometimes it becomes very difficult for an admirer to make the other person understand about the serious repercussions of being overconfident. Such is the alluring power of this trait that even the seasoned and proficient individuals take decisions which could boomerang or end up in unwarranted losses. Psychologists have determined that overconfidence causes people to overestimate their knowledge, underestimate risks, and exaggerate their ability to control events. The political parties are no exception to this syndrome. After the victory in the just concluded parliamentary elections, the main opposition political party seems to have gone into a self-destructive mode. Every action of the party post parliamentary elections is turning out to be controversial and provides a strong indication of overconfidence running high on their nerves. The party is being approached by many people due to mis-governance of issues by the ruling party or the possible thought of grabbing power in the near future. The situation would have been different in the eyes of people provided the ruling party would have delivered in a better way. Let us not miss out on an important point of anti-incumbency factor which has created an automatic conducive platform for the main opposition party to garner the support of people without actually putting in much of an effort. Here, the only fact is not that the people are with the opposition party but in other way against the ruling party. According to many political analysts, the manner in which people looked at this party as an alternative before the just concluded parliamentary elections have changed on ground post-elections due to a lot of factors. The one major affecting factor is the slanted manner in which the mandates were distributed and also due to the complete rejection of the workers voice for their respective constituencies. The claim of being different to their political rivals and having a democratic setup in the party becomes doubtful; the moment sincere aspirations of the workers were completely ignored by air dropping some of the candidates purely based on the personal choice of the party high command and not on merit. The democracy word was thrown out of the window and the workers were made to realize in a hard way that the party belongs to the high command, only. The classic example of party’s undemocratic approach which caught the public eye was in the form of one candidate who joined the party recently and was straightaway included in the all-important political affairs committee meeting to finalize his own mandate. This was done despite the known fact that the candidate does not have the membership of the committee. This amounts to a gross violation of party’s democratic setup and therefore throwing all the rules, regulations and values of the party in the dustbin. In this whole mess, there was a huge hue and cry within the party and the consequent mass resignation of workers in certain constituencies stands testimony to the party’s careless way of handling this critical issue. This further damaged the image of the party in one or the other way. Just to add insult to the injury, the high command did not even bothered to take the affected sitting MLA’s and other deserving candidates into confidence and went ahead with the announcement of mandate list. This had an adverse effect as the affected constituencies were up in arms and saw party workers protesting against the mandates given in an unfair and undemocratic way by ignoring the deserving candidates. Such biased move left people with no choice but to rethink about the credibility of this party and also doubt their over the sky promises before the parliamentary elections and different approach post-elections. The party needs to introspect and understand one important fact that the people are no longer the same traditional voters and are much aware about the current political scenario surrounding them. The common man looks at the candidate as an important player in the election process as they know that the same candidate is going to serve them for the next term. It is not a secret that this entire incident even had an adverse effect on the senior leadership and the tremors were felt in the shape of a powerful interview being given recently by one of its top most senior party leader who smartly criticised and confronted the way mandates were distributed. He highlighted the consequences and spoke about the ruling party taking political mileage out of this gaffe. The election which looked to be one-sided at one particular time has changed its course, drastically. The internal cold war within the party cannot be ruled out due to such imposed decisions by the high command and moreover no say in the final decision making. Apart from this, there are strong indicators and feelers in public domain about the party for upsetting various sections of the society by side-lining potentially strong and deserving candidates for the party’s mandate. The sectarian angle is also one of the theories being discussed by people in many forums. This is a volatile and sensitive issue which could put the party further into deep trouble as the intention of the party’s sectarian uniformity could be seriously questioned and challenged. The perception of having a biased approach towards the city and the village in the past might come back to haunt the party again but this time on sectarian lines. Even though a heavy consensus is going on between the party and the missed out candidates to adjust them post assembly elections but the party might have to face the brunt of their supporters during the assembly elections, itself. Moreover, the large number of upset clan could be seen in the form of youth who are being promised sun and moon by the party but the party could not even provide them the deserving candidates for their constituencies. The resentment among the youth on the mandate issue can be felt through social networking sites flooded with heavy criticism. The youth balloon has blown in so much air that it could possibly burst anytime as they have started thinking, if this is the start, what would be the ending? On the other hand, the ruling party has become more active and are trying hard to revive its fortunes by announcing various pro-people measures and also by highlighting the changed behaviour and stance of the main opposition party post winning the parliamentary elections. Among all this fuss, the emergence of BJP on the scene can throw in a big surprise for everyone particularly in the valley as the same party is expected to reap high benefits in Jammu region this time making it possibly an important player in the coming assembly elections. The main opposition party expecting to improve its numbers in the coming assembly elections mainly due to the fact of mis-governance of the ruling party but the distant dream of nearing majority have already taken a huge setback on ground due to their overconfidence. The party needs to adopt a different approach and make sure to see all this through a prism of people’s aspirations. The public opinion and choice matters a lot in the elections as people are the one who elect and reject the parties. The party doesn’t need to master rocket science but requires the simple courage and will to rethink over this mandate controversy and take immediate corrective measures. This simple gesture by the party would definitely enhance and pass on a strong message among masses to be seen as a mark of respect towards people’s voice. This would further encourage the party’s claim of being a People’s Democratic Party. The question remains whether the stubbornness of party high command is more important or the appeal of common people who have high hopes from this party? The answer lies with the high command. The people want a change from the incumbent government but not at the cost and sacrifice of people’s aspirations. The author hails from Nazneenpora, a far flung village of south Kashmir’s Shopian district. He can be mailed at syedtajamul09@gmail
Posted on: Mon, 11 Aug 2014 16:59:28 +0000
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