The ongoing three-phase election in Jammu and Kashmir undoubtedly displays the people’s desire to use the ballot to negotiate a little more elbow room and breathing space than they have had since August 5, 2019, when Article 370 and Article 35A of the Constitution were repealed and Jammu and Kashmir reduced from a State to a Union Territory, with Ladakh hived off as a separate centrally administered territory as well.
And so, there are new experiences in this new phase of Kashmir’s troubled history. Shopian, the apple-growing district full of low-hanging fruits ripening this season, was once a dangerous place where local residents went home as soon as the sun set and the Army moved about in protected convoys. One could imagine gun-toting men peeking from behind the trees where only apples and some walnuts are now camouflaged behind leaves in the forested areas. We pass villages where gunfights took place, and a local resident points out locations where militants were felled or are buried.
Heff village in the Zainapura constituency of Shopian has endured militancy and intense search operations by the Army. There is a 2017 report inThe Hindu about security forces calling off an operation that began in the early hours of the morning after some stone pelting. People here rarely voted in the past decades (the last election was in 2014). Today, people are indeed voting as those who called for electoral boycotts in the past have been neutralised with an iron fist, and the velvet-gloved hand is now being extended to co-opt them into deep-state strategies.
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The voting booth in the Heff government high school is manned by the Border Security Force (BSF) and the Jammu & Kashmir Police, and a CRPF commander also comes to check in. As I stand outside trying to get the villagers to open up, an Army convoy passes by and stops a short distance away. Two young armed officers in black fatigues start walking towards me. My muscle memory of past journeys in Kashmir kicks in, and I brace myself wondering for a brief moment if we are going to be picked up. Instead, they stop and say: “Welcome ma’am, we are fans of your column and wanted to say hello.” The soldiers are commandos from the Rashtriya Rifles (RR), the counter-insurgency force trained to serve in Jammu and Kashmir.
Press freedom among rights curtailed
In one of the most militarised zones in the world, people are going past personnel of the BSF, CRPF, Jammu & Kashmir Police, and RR to cast their vote. Yet, against all this, one cannot forget that over the years many rights have been suppressed. The local Kashmir media has suffered, and here is a small sample of what has happened to some of my Srinagar-based colleagues: one journalist was assassinated by militants, another has left India, a third has quit journalism (his laptop is still with the agencies), and a fourth has been put on a no-fly list.
But tourists appear to be happy, and the industry linked to it is thriving. A new sensibility is also evident in the voices of those now entering adulthood: “We don’t want to live in the age of protests and militancy.” A young driver who worked with the crew of the film Article 370 says he does not care if it was a propaganda movie. “I just want to earn, be healthy, work out, and not live amid the insanity of protests and guns.”
If we look at Kashmir from the perspective of political outcomes, then the National Conference (NC) seems best poised to take the Valley, and an alliance with the Congress helps because currently Kashmiris there seem to rate Rahul Gandhi highly. At the same time, while many voters may not think too well of NC leaders, they say they will choose the party this time because it has the best organisational strength to represent them and checkmate the BJP.
While the popular belief was that the BJP would be decimated in Jammu and the Congress would win there, at the time of writing this the prospects of the saffron party are said to have improved. Still, the best result the Valley hopes for is an NC-Congress win (if that happens, Omar Abdullah will be Chief Minister again). Mehbooba Mufti’s Peoples Democratic Party is said to be on the decline (aligning with the BJP from March 2015 to June 2018 was disastrous), but if the NC-Congress combine falls short of numbers, it is being said that PDP MLAs could be part of a broad alliance.
The BJP’s political machinations
However, the BJP is playing deep-state games. The election is taking place because the Supreme Court ordered it. Kashmir, however, is not a mere electoral arena but an ideological terrain for the BJP. On the one hand, “the system” has enabled Independents linked to the banned Jamaat-e-Islami to contest in some seats; on the other, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, a prominent religious leader and moderate member of the Hurriyat Conference that traditionally represents theazaadisentiment in the Valley, is still under house arrest. To add to the confusion, Engineer Rashid, jailed under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, has been set free for the duration of the campaign. These developments in the Valley could have been designed to create optics that generate a certain sentiment in Jammu that can be beneficial to the BJP. Despite these overt and covert moves, one wonders whether it should not be welcomed when a constituency that rejected India, boycotted elections, and took up guns earlier now has agreed to contest elections under rules mandated by the Indian Constitution.
In Kulgam, I pose this query to M.Y. Tarigami, the four-term doughty MLA of the CPI(M). He is contesting against an Independent backed by the Jamaat-e-Islami. It is a classic Left vs Right battle, and Tarigami believes that the Jamaat is backed “by those in power” in order to split the votes of the mainstream parties. As Tarigami winds up his speech in one village, I try to speak to local people but get no response. Suddenly, a local Kashmiri journalist says we must leave the location as stone pelting had apparently begun.
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The next day, I travel to Pulwama to meet a Jamaat-backed independent candidate, Dr Talat Majid, who proudly says he has been interviewed by the editor of ANI. He says that Kashmiris have been politically defeated and he is contesting because one has to function in the here and now. He brushes aside queries about being propped up by the deep state and says: “Is it not good that we are ready to take oath on the Indian Constitution?”
Selective detention of political leaders
Back in Srinagar, I telephone Mirwaiz. He says: “Welcome back to the Valley, but I do not know if you can meet me.” He is not allowed visitors, and he has been stopped from leading Friday prayers at the Jama Masjid in Srinagar. Local scribes avoid it, but I make my way to Mirwaiz’s home. A policeman asks my name and a minute later I am told that “SHO sir” is saying I cannot go in. I ask a senior officer in the administration why Mirwaiz is under house arrest when Jamaat-backed candidates are free. I am told it is because there is a threat to his life (his father was killed by militants in 1990). Later, I find that Mirwaiz’s security was actually downgraded in 2018.
There are wheels within wheels and no absolute truths in the Valley. What one can say is that the people in the Valley see this election as the first chance to make themselves heard after 2019. One must remember that under the current rules, the Lieutenant Governor is all-powerful. The people and the parties are managing within whatever little space they have been allowed.
Saba Naqvi is a Delhi-based journalist and author of four books who writes on politics and identity issues.
