parliament will be out. While the attention will be squarely on who will form the government and how, for most of us in the state our concerns tend to be a bit more limited.
Notwithstanding the constrained mandate – the poll percentage has been poor and in some pockets dismal– what is that we realistically speaking expect our six parliamentarians to do in the citadel of Indian democracy?
There are obvious constraints on what they can do. At the end of the day, democracy is all about numbers. We send only six members to the Lok Sabha. And even those six never see themselves as representatives of J&K. They much rather see themselves as representatives of their respective political parties.
It will be foolhardy to expect them to take the issue of resolution of the J&K to the India Parliament. It will be a non-starter. They are neither the force, nor is the forum to resolve the issue of J&K. As such, the role is well constrained by the system. The parliamentarians will do well to focus on getting for J&K and its people what is already within the Constitution of India.
Given the situation that J&K is in, it would be ideal that the six MPs represent the state and civil society of J&K and not the political party they belong to. They will, of course have their differences in ideology but there stately is a common cause; that of restoring the special status of J&K.
Surely, there are differences in detail: is it going back to 1953 or some earlier date or in nomenclature, autonomy v/s self rule. But the common factor to all regional parties is to ensure a greater degree of freedom within the federal set up.
In this regard, the greatest contribution that they can make as parliamentarians to the Parliament of India is to make it realise that it has a limited role in the affairs of J&K. The single most significant point that needs to be drilled home is that unlike in the case of other states, the Indian parliament doesn’t have residuary powers vis-a-vis J&K. That this is so, has been made by the same Parliament some time back! In other words, our MPs would have done great job if they remind the all powerful house of its powers which it has delegated to the people and assembly of J&K.

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