Farooq Ganderbali
Whether Indians like it or not, to the glee of their Pakistani friends, rigging in the 1987 elections was responsible for rise of armed militancy in Jammu & Kashmir; it also contributed to creating disillusionment towards the political system among the people. The Lok Sabha polls held two years later in 1989 saw a low voter-turnout. Credibility of the political system suffered as a consequence. Rattled Delhi worked painstakingly to win back peoples’ trust and confidence. The first step in the direction was the appeal of the then Prime Minister P V Narasimha Rao on November 4, 1995. He was then visiting Burkina Faso.
“From a long distance away from home, I am addressing an appeal through this statement to the people of Jammu and Kashmir, at a time which could well turn their destiny once again in glorious manner, so as to make that lovely land a peer to paradise -jannatnishaan, as it has been called for centuries”, Rao said in his statement that came to be known as the Burkina Faso declaration and outlined his package and set the stage to fulfill his commitment to the people of Jammu and Kashmir that “`short of azadi, sky is the limit?”
Assembly election held in 1996 redeemed Delhi’s pledge in a manner of speaking and put democracy back on rails, decisively. Atal Behari Vajpayee as Prime Minister of National Democratic Front government spoke of his dream of Insaniyat, Kashmiriyat, and Jamhooriyat as three pillars to sustain Kashmir. Now, Narendra Modi, invoking Vajpayee, has added his own “vikas” (development) as the fourth pillar to put Kashmir on the road to development.
Cut to the time of India’s independence, and Kashmir’s accession to India. National Conference (NC) was the major party. After the arrest of its tallest leader Mohammad Sheikh Abdullah in 1953, the Congress party became the main player. Rolls reversed twenty-two years later after Indira Gandhi and Sheikh Abdullah signed the Delhi Accord in 1975. The chief minister of the day, Syed Mir Qasim of the Congress stepped down; the lion of Kashmir returned to power, roaring literally.
Over the next three decades, Jammu and Kashmir witnessed many political upheavals – some pleasant and some not so pleasant which in essence turned the state into a race three-legged race between the Congress, the National Conference and local outfit PDP made up of erstwhile NC men. With the entry of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), it has become a four-leg race. The Congress had aligned with the PDP first and then with the National Conference to be power centric. The outgoing government of Omar Abdullah of National Conference came to power in 2008 with the support of the Congress.
In the on-going election, Modi appears to have changed the dynamics of Kashmir politics. Like in Jharkhand in Eastern India, which is also going to polls along with Jammu and Kashmir, he has been questioning the moorings of regional parties, and challenging the hold they have come to acquire. His pitch: “The regional parties, controlled by entrenched political families, have not been honest to the people and hence test the BJP by giving it a chance”.
Significantly, Modi is not targeting Pakistan though he makes a reference to the pain and agony of the families who have become victims of Pakistan sponsored militancy. Also ignored in his speeches are the Separatist groups, even as his party has walked the extra mile to woo the likes of Sajjad Lone of the People’s Conference. On his part, Lone has stuck the right note, when he said, “Boycotting elections is a mistake. Equally big a mistake it would be to argue that everything is all right because people are voting.”
BJP’s manifesto, vision document, as the party likes to describe it, is silent on the contentious issue of Art 370 of the Indian Constitution which gives special status to the border province. This is not the first time Art 370 had gone missing from the BJP manifesto though. In the assembly elections held in the year 2008 also, there was no mention of the Art 370 in its manifesto. The BJP managed to win eleven seats in that election. This time around its key talking points are development and the dignified return of Kashmiri Pandits to the Valley. It promises development on “TIME” – Tourism, Infrastructure, Modernization and Empowerment; in short, political stability and economic prosperity.
It is this stability that the militants and their backers back in Pakistan do not want. A stable and prosperous Jammu and Kashmir is an anathema to them as they are resolved to spread Talibanisation as the first step to realise their juggler vein for years. The route to achieve their goal is creation of panic by striking at both security personnel and unarmed civilians particularly during election time. During the last assembly election held in November 2008, as many as 34 people were killed. That year saw 541 fatalities in the Valley. This election season has also seen much bloodshed with Friday Dec 5 ending up as the Black Friday as militant stuck at four different places in less than 12 hours.
Does this all raise the spectre of supremacy of bullets over ballots? Not necessarily. Back in 2008 election, despite the threat of the AK-47s looming large, people surprised everyone by reposing their faith in the political process. Over 60 per cent of the voters exercised their franchise rejecting the boycott calls. This represented a 17 percent increase in voters’ participation when compared to the elections held six years earlier in 2002.
The impressive turnout in the on-going election reflects a healthy trend that brings up the inevitable question: Does the enthusiastic participation signal the end of Separatism in Kashmir? Whether the answer is a resounding yes or a feeble no, the occasion offers a good enough cause for celebration. Yes, to the dismay of Separatists, who are left stranded with their Plebiscite demand lost in transit! Also to the disquiet of Pakistan with its charge of India suppressing the people of Kashmir now sounding hollow!
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