Jammu and Kashmir: Faith in Democratic Process
Asia News Agency
Jammu and Kashmir went to the polls in five phases. According to reports, Kashmir, home to the bulk of the UT’s population but the smallest in size, recorded a voter turnout that was the highest since 1996. Srinagar saw 38.49 per cent polling, Baramulla 59.1 per cent and Anantnag — its Kashmiri predominance sought to be blunted by the addition of Jammu division’s Poonch-Rajouri districts — 54.84 per cent.
Sharp communal divide
The results, writes Wajahat Habibullah (Former Bureaucrat, J&K cadre) “demonstrate a sharp communal divide between the Muslim-majority Kashmir and Ladakh and Hindu-majority Jammu, a polarisation accentuated by the religious appeal made to voters by contenders on both sides of the Pir Panjal. The Hindutva agenda of the BJP, which took both seats in Jammu — constituencies crafted by the Delimitation Commission to buttress their religious identity — was matched by the distinct religious grounding of each of the candidates in the Valley, although the latter was free from sectarianism…..”
Beginning of a new era?: In fact, Aga Syed Ruhullah Mehdi, the triumphant National Conference (NC) candidate from Srinagar openly apologised on behalf of his Shia community for having failed to prevent the exodus of Kashmiri Pandits from the Valley. Is this then, speculates Habibullah “the beginning of a new era in the troubled region?
‘Consolidation of the votes against the BJP’
It is well to remember that “this was the first election in Jammu and Kashmir since the Modi government’s revocation of the limited political autonomy that the state had enjoyed under the Constitution with the abrogation of Article 370 in 2019. The turnout in the elections in the Valley and Ladakh is indicative of the determination of Kashmiris and Ladakhis to oust the BJP government at the Centre. Although the trends from the beginning favoured former NC leader Mohammed Haneefa, who won the Ladakh seat as an independent, this is not necessarily a resurgence of the party but a bid to rally behind it to defeat the ruling party at the Centre. The fact that the NC’s star candidate, former CM Omar Abdullah, was unseated simply affirms this as the elected candidate, Engineer Rashid (who got nearly 46 per cent of the vote against Abdullah’s 26 per cent) has himself been an advocate of ‘Azadi’ (independence), for which he has been in the Tihar Jail for the past five years under UAPA….”
What we are witness to specifically is a “consolidation of the votes against the BJP, the party responsible for the abrogation….Hostility to the BJP was palpable and universal, states Habibullah. “Candidates had more to say against the BJP on the campaign trail than against each other. Different segments of Kashmir’s political firmament were united against the party ruling in New Delhi. The message that the Kashmiris have given is loud and clear. Although violence has indeed abated in the UT, the reasons for this are not to be found in any sense of satisfaction among the people with the extant administration, but instead an increased alienation.”
Silver lining: belief in the democratic process
Yet, “there is a bright silver lining. The people who turned out to vote show that increasingly, despite the alienation, there is a realisation that the democratic process, rather than the gun, has the potential to bring remedies to political and social travails. Although there is anger against the current political leadership, there is a new-found faith in India and the leverage given to its people through the vote.”
And it is with some significance that “the representatives of the two leading political dynasties of the region, both Kashmiris, faced a rebuff.”