Election violence in J&K

Col J P Singh, Retd
Violence has become the flavour of elections in India  and the neighbourhood. Two former prime ministers and promising leaders of India and Pakistan have been killed by the terrorists during election campaigns. While the elections are seen as an opportunity by the people to elect law makers, the terrorists find it an opportunity to colour their hands in blood. It hurts to see that in certain parts of the world public aspirations are marred at the gun point. Despite thriving democracy, in many parts of India violence mars the electoral process. It is more pronounced in J&K. Since  nineties, elections in J&K have been held under the shadow of militancy. Seeing Election 2014 widely phased out in J&K, it was expected to be free and fair. While the polling for Jammu and Udhampur seats went off well, it was not destined to be so in the valley. A Polling party of Anantnag Constituency was targeted while returning after conducting the poll on 24 April, killing an election official and injuring 5. In the ensuing gun battle one army Major & a Jawan lost their lives. Three militants were also killed in the encounter. Next day grenades were hurled on Dr Farooq Abdulla’s rallies at Budgam & Khanyar and the ceasefire violations started in Poonch. The process which started off as festival became bloody battle as it progressed. Militants had given a boycott call as usual and started killing gross root leaders. The signal of terrorising the electoral process was clear but not taken seriously. Despite that 28 % polling took place in Anantnag constituency which is commendable and suggests that people have immense faith in democracy. Their enthusiasm to vote has been demonstrated earlier in Assembly and Panchayat elections despite threats.  While we condole it, but can’t close our eyes to cold blooded killings. The question thus arises is what can we do. The answer is we must do whatever we can. Least we can do is to form security teams for providing security kabach to our elected Panches and Sarpanches. While we expect them to solve our routine problems, we should be committed to their security. I think we can because it is not their lives alone, the life of democracy is in danger. At the same time intelligence agencies must find out the deep rooted conspiracies behind the election violence and help security agencies to thwart such plots. The perpetrators of the plot must be exposed and demolished. At the end of the day, if we have to get rid of terrorism in J&K, we will have to vote through the bullet.
Grass root leadership plays vital role in polling. Since they are elected, they become friends, philosophers and guides. It is they who motivate people to vote and in many cases drive them to the polling booths when the threats are prevalent. Their participation in polling process emboldens public. Hence the gross root leadership has to be protected irrespective whether apparent threats exist or not. They should be protected by the govt as well as the public. Separatists and their mentors are fully aware of the vulnerabilities of grass root leaders which they exploit fully and achieve their aims. Ironically the govt, which has more stakes in the democratic  process seems to have ignored this security aspect. Lesser polling under the shadow of violence is alleged to go in favour of ruling dispensation and hence accepted as fait accompli. Such apprehensions should be probed and taken note off.
Certain amount of pre-poll violence was certain but no concrete measures were  taken by the govt with all the resources at its command including large presence of additional security forces. Although the Chief Minister did make a strong case for neutralising the effect of boycott call by saying that ‘if the govt is not forcing any one to vote why should the separatists force people not to vote and whether to vote or not should be left to one’s conviction, not coercion’. It should have been reinforced with security measures which would have created confidence amongst the voters that they will be protected before and after the polls. The voting would have been higher and decisive. The onus lies on the govt to provide security to the citizens so that they can vote fearlessly in other constituencies.
Election 2014 came under severe criticism in J&K ever since BJP prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi addressed a massive election rally at Jammu on 01 Dec 2013 and raked up the issues of Article 370, Pak Refugees, security, corruption and discrimination. Despite lot of hue and cry on his Article 370 remarks, we can’t link his statement as provocation to pre-election violence in the valley. Since there was no violence in Jammu and Udhampur constituencies, the polling in Jammu went up to 69 % (15 % more than the last election) & 72 % in Udhampur-Doda constituencies (up by 27 %). Similar high turn out was expected in the valley this time but the violence unleashed by militants have shattered our hopes. While the people enthusiasm in the valley is hailed, statistics suggest that it is Jammu and Ladakh which have been the major contributors to the voter turnout in the past elections. Jammu and Ladakh will continue to lend respectability to the overall voting  %age but when will the valley catch up. One way is to stagger the valley poll schedule more to enable security forces to fully sanitise the constituencies.
The records maintained by the Election Commission of India  of 1996, 2004 and 2009 elections suggest that turnout in the lesser populated Jammu and Ladakh has been much higher than thickly populated valley. Jammu provided major boost to the overall turnout figures.
In the last Lok Sabha elections of 2009, believed to be fairest of all held in the state thus far, the electorate strength in the state was 65,72,896.  26,05,966 of them exercised their franchise with an overall poll %age of 39.68. But 60 per cent of the overall participation came from Jammu and Ladakh while three constituencies of the Valley contributed 40 %.  Prior to that, in the parliamentary election of 2004 there were 63,68,115 eligible voters. Only 35.20 % ie  22,41,729 electorate exercised their franchise. Then also it was 30 % from the valley & 70 % representation by Jammu and Ladakh.
In the last Assembly election 15 lakh voters voted in the valley to elect 46 MLAs whereas 27 lakh voters voted in Jammu for 37 MLAs. Last Panchayat elections saw a record turn out of 80 %. Why it can’t be same in the Parliamentary elections and why is the valley out of tune with the national trend needs serious and detailed analysis instead of accepting the fait accompli. The fact is that terrorists are in the valley and will not allow free and fair polls. The time has come to terrorise them instead of being terrorised.

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