Jammu and Kashmir: The battle that lies beyond elections

This vote serves as a litmus test for the Centre’s commitment to restoring dignity and agency to a region long denied democratic self-determination.

A woman shows her inked finger after casting her vote at a polling booth during the third and final phase of the Assembly election, at Tangmarg in Baramulla district, Jammu and Kashmir, on October 1. | Photo Credit: PTI

In the contested and storied valleys of Jammu and Kashmir, the political atmosphere teems with unprecedented fervour as people vote in the third phase of the Assembly election on October 1. After years of uncertainty and fractured governance, both political stalwarts and nascent independent voices are vying for the reins of a region whose identity remains suspended between memory and modernity. In the first election since the erstwhile State was split into two Union Territories and lost its semi-autonomous status, everything is new and different. Voters are electing in a completely new landscape that is largely seen as having been shifted to align with the BJP’s political interests.

For the people of Jammu and Kashmir, this election presents a crossroads: between participating in a process that symbolises the erosion of their political autonomy or rejecting it as a hollow spectacle. For regional parties, long sidelined under direct Central rule, the election signifies a fraught re-entry into a landscape where their agency has been profoundly circumscribed. The electoral framework has been stripped of its historical safeguards, forcing both people and parties to navigate a terrain redefined by a central authority whose grip has tightened, leaving a fundamental question: does this election restore legitimacy or entrench disempowerment?

A symbolic election

Jammu and Kashmir’s electoral landscape has often mirrored its political turbulence, where elections became symbols rather than instruments of popular will. The 1953 arrest of Sheikh Abdullah marked the beginning of a fraught relationship between democracy and the region’s unique identity. From the dismissal of Sheikh Abdullah in 1953 to the blatant rigging of the 1987 State election, the Centre has orchestrated political outcomes to maintain its grip on the region. These interventions already sabotaged the autonomy promised under Article 370, eroding trust in electoral legitimacy.

The formal abrogation of Article 370 in 2019 without consulting local representatives was the ultimate display of coercive federalism, further disenfranchising the people and rendering democratic participation superficial. The delayed Assembly election, even after the abrogation of Article 370, left Jammu and Kashmir under prolonged Central rule, sidelining democratic processes. The 2020 District Development Council elections were marred by the detention of key political leaders and restrictions on opposition parties. These tactics underscore the Centre’s calculated attempts to manipulate political outcomes while projecting a facade of electoral legitimacy.

Even the present election, held after a decade, is constrained within a suffocating, controlled space, dictated by the BJP’s aggressive integrationist agenda. Once-diverse political parties are forced to compete within a framework that limits autonomy and stifles dissent. The idea of political competition is a façade, where the narrative of integration overpowers all other concerns and alternative visions for the region’s future. This is less a return to democracy and more a sanctioned performance of compliance.

The BJP’s strategy has turned Jammu and Kashmir’s regional parties into caricatures of their former selves. They find themselves vying for relevance within the same political framework that stripped them of power. This is no accident—it is a deliberate move by the BJP to erode their credibility. By making them complicit in a system they once opposed, the BJP has ensured that these parties now appear two-faced, alienating their base and making them politically impotent.

However, the establishment of a bona fide electoral mechanism is also today the foremost prerequisite to conveying the message that the political agency and genuine representation of the people of Jammu and Kashmir is indispensable.

Ideological battle

More than five years after the unilateral move to redraw the political map of the restive Valley, peace is not only fragile, but elusive. The BJP’s narrative that the abrogation has heralded a new era of democracy rings hollow, as it coincides with the centralisation of power, suppression of dissent, and the incarceration of political leaders and journalists.

The abrogation was framed as a move that would spur economic development and tackle unemployment in Jammu and Kashmir. However, the data shows a different reality. According to the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy, the unemployment rate in Jammu and Kashmir was as high as 23.1 per cent in May 2023, significantly above the national average of around 7 per cent. Additionally, foreign direct investment remains negligible, and industrial growth has been limited.

The election here is not for better amenities but is a barometer of trust in the Centre and the future. Until the foundations of peace are laid firmly, no lofty blueprint of development can be drawn up. A persistent longing for the reinstatement of a political order that gave exclusive rights—from residency privileges to entitlements for employment and educational benefits—solely for the local populace can be heard through the Valley. Only through the re-establishment of such legal and constitutional guarantees can the Valley’s historical autonomy and regional specificity be preserved, ensuring that the original ethos of localised governance is not permanently eroded.

The way forward

The challenges facing Jammu and Kashmir require thoughtful solutions that balance political, social, and constitutional considerations. The new legislature must not be reduced to a colonial relic, devoid of real authority and functioning merely as a rubber stamp for directives from New Delhi. Restoring statehood stands at the heart of any resolution, as it would revive the region’s political identity and grant its people a sense of autonomy. An empowered Legislative Assembly must follow, one that is not merely symbolic but vested with genuine authority to govern effectively, addressing local needs and aspirations.

With boycott calls fading and an eager electorate, the moment is ripe for the Centre to signal its commitment—one that transcends mere politics—to safeguarding the dignity, identity, and agency of the people of Jammu and Kashmir. By embracing this opportunity, the government can affirm that the will of the people, and not political manoeuvring, will be the driving force in the region’s future.

Democracy has been denied to the people of Jammu and Kashmir for the last seven decades. But today, when the BJP is pushing for a greater Hindu-isation of India at the cost of minority rights, and with its semi-autonomous status now removed, the region’s residents fear a threat to their identity, dignity, and agency. Empowering the people to shape their own destiny will not only restore trust but also lay the foundation for a more inclusive and peaceful governance in the future.

Bilal Ahmad Wagay teaches politics at Government Degree College, Beerwah. Binish Qadri is Assistant Professor, Cluster University Srinagar.