Art 370: Debate is important, not who said what

A couple of days ago, BJP's prime ministerial candidate

said at a rally in Jammu that the utility

should be debated. The call was fair. But what followed thereafter was an insult for the democracy. Leaders across the political spectrum began to counter-attack the call for a debate on Article 370.

Bihar CM rubbishes debate!

Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar even said that there was no need of any debate on the constitutional provision, saying such call was an attempt to divide the country. Nitish Kumar's reaction was perhaps the most shocking for he rubbished the need for debate in a democracy.

In contemporary Indian politics, attack and counter-attack are more popular than any healthy debate. And the verbal duel is also ultimately reduced to a Congress versus BJP or more precisely, a Modi versus the rest affair. In a country like India where plurality is the biggest truth and mutual accommodation is the only way to go forward, such never-ending and hollow arguments are absolutely farcical. But when individuals become bigger than their respective institutions (read parties) and their ego clashes subsequently, making politics the centre point of all debates.

Modi's call was fair, others' reactions were not

On December 1, Modi set the cat among the pigeons in Jammu by raking up the Article 370 issue. The call for a debate was undoubtedly a political move to get closer with the common people of Jammu and Kashmir and his opponents, irrespective of the political colour, attacked him as the counter political move.
It is unfortunate that top political leaders today can not take up an important issue for deliberation, irrespective the political differences. They behave as if each of them is a class enemy of the other.

Experts have presented their views on Art 370. Why can't we debate on them?

They forget that at the end of the day, it is the common man's will which decides their stay in office and try to shape the flow of events from a position of strength. The megalomaniac in most of the politicians today have crippled the institutional essence of the Indian democracy and they refuse to understand anything other than how to grab the lion-share of votes.

Nothing universally good or bad, can our politicians note it?

Take the case of Article 370. Nobody has shown any concern about the core subject of the controversial article ever since Modi raised the issue. Everybody is busy using up the media to express their personal preferences, which should not be the case. Whether Omara Abdullah or Nitish Kumar like the BJP and Modi or hate him is not the actual point. The real issue is how every party, agreeing or disagreeing, can reach a common point of consensus through talks and discussions. That's where the success of democracy lies. Nothing is universally good or bad, our politicians forget

Parties' internal culture the reason behind such state of affairs

But what is the reason behind the paradox that healthy debate has no place in the world's largest democracy? The most valid explanation for such state of affairs is the lack of democracy in the parties that run the democracy. The Congress gave up the culture of internal democracy since Jawaharlal Nehru. The Left parties know little apart from a centralised functioning, run in the name of democracy. Most other regional parties are one-person show where questioning and counter-questioning are considered evil.

The BJP is the only party which is comparatively open but always had an imposition from the Parivar.
Ideology doesn't differentiate India's politicians. Rather, they are united by a common disease, which is disregarding and disrespecting the democracy. This common behaviour, as yet another paradox, has polarised the nation to a point of worry.