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    Mission Kashmir: Will the ballot beat the bullet this time in J&K?

    Synopsis

    The first DDC elections in the Union territory of Jammu and Kashmir aim to give rights back to the people through the Panchayat system.

    jdtjustuwsAgencies

    Voters line up outside a polling booth in Meen Sarkar, Samba district, on December 1, when the second phase of the District Development Council elections was held.

    PS Sudan, 79, who runs an arms and ammunition business in downtown Jammu still remembers the 1964 rally that Sheikh Abdullah addressed in Doda. The co-founder of the Muslim Conference, which was renamed National Conference in 1939, had just stepped out of jail after more than a decade.

    Stripped of his prime ministership, Abdullah was put in jail and then under house arrest by the then Sadr-i-Riyasat, Karan Singh, for allegedly espousing the cause of an independent Kashmir. “There was a large juloos to welcome their hero back,” Sudan recalls. But more than the crowd, it was Abdullah’s words that made an impression on Sudan. “‘My Muslim brothers…When I die, throw me in the Arabian Sea instead of burying me in this enslaved land,’ he had said (exhorting his followers to take forward the cause of self-rule in Kashmir),” adds Sudan.

    Decades later, his son and former J&K CM Farooq Abdullah — who was also under house arrest until March, though the government has denied arresting him — has unified seven political rivals under the People’s Alliance for Gupkar Declaration (PAGD) in their fight for the restoration of special status to Jammu and Kashmir.

    Apart from the National Conference, the PAGD has Mehbooba Mufti led PDP, Sajad Lone’s People’s Conference, Awami National Conference, Jammu Kashmir People’s Movement, Congress and the CPI(M). The alliance is now facing its biggest test as the newly created Union territory of Jammu and Kashmir is undergoing its first major polling exercise since the state was bifurcated in 2019.

    The elections for the District Development Councils (DDCs) aim to establish an elected third tier in the Panchayati Raj system — Gram Panchayats, Block Development Councils and the DDCs. Byelections are being simultaneously held in 12,153 Panchayat seats and 234 urban local wards.

    The PAGD and BJP are the two main rivals. The questions everyone is asking are will the DDCs give power back effectively to the people in a region that has seen violence for long? Can it bring the much-needed development to the region? Will it change the political landscape in J&K? Yes, says the BJP.

    Referring to the Gupkar alliance, Union Minister for Minority Affairs Mukhtar Abbas Nazvi says, “Gupkar is actually a gang of people who have come together to carry out their nefarious plans. These elections will mark the end of NC and PDP.”

    The BJP is out to prove it was right in doing away with Article 370. Its political fight has been bolstered by the J&K administration’s allegations that the Abdullah, the Muftis and senior politicians in the state have illegally acquired land. The party’s stronghold is Jammu, with its 65% Hindu population.

    That support is largely intact. “We are Hindus. Our votes will go to the BJP,” says Sushil Dutta, president of the Railway Station Taxi Union in Nagrota. There are grievances too. “Jammu gave 25 MLAs to the BJP but these leaders did not visit us after the elections. Now the party is giving tickets to these people in the DDC polls. Has the party become so weak?”

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    The narrative takes a sharp turn as one crosses the Pir Panjal range and enters the Kashmir Valley. Abdul Wajid, 40, who runs a small logistics business on the banks of the Chenab in Ramban, wonders aloud if the BJP can keep key J&K political leaders under house arrest for days, imagine what it can do to the citizens who don’t agree with the party.

    “We support Farooq Abdullah for his stand on Article 370. Only NC talks of our identity and independence. This is our chance to vote for what matters to us.” Akash Singh, 25, a first-time voter standing next to Wajid, doesn’t care much for Article 370.

    “My vote will go to the party that promises better roads, power, water supply and jobs. National issues such as 370 should be left for assembly or parliamentary elections,” adds Singh.

    The arguments become shriller in Ramsoo. “With 370 gone, our lands and jobs might be given to outsiders. They can take away our land, our haq, our identity. Gupkar will be our choice,” says Mohd Yusuf, a teacher of Arabic.

    The PDP and NC had boycotted the 2018 panchayat and municipal elections because they wanted the Centre to take steps to protect Article 370 from legal challenges. But this time around, they have realised that winning elections is required to bring about a change. J&K citizens are keen to exercise their franchise despite heavy snow in some places.

    The turnout has been high in the first three phases of the eight phases.

    In Akhnoor, Mannat Ram, 27, rushed to the polling booth after getting married. He did not even get out of his wedding attire. “I was not going to miss an opportunity offered to us after 73 years,” says Ram, a refugee from West Pakistan who got citizenship but not the right to vote.

    This is the first time that West Pakistani refugees who have become Indian citizens, Valmikis and Gurkhas are voting. They were barred from voting in assembly, panchayat and urban local body polls because Article 370 had not granted them domicile.

    Development is on everyone’s mind. Given the state of roads outside the cities, long traffic jams and power outages, infrastructure needs a boost. The BJP has promised 70,000 jobs in the manifesto. “The results across J&K will be decisive and development oriented in favour of the BJP. The ballot will emerge more powerful than the bullet again,” says Anurag Thakur, MoS-finance, who has lead the party’s election campaigning. In Kashmir, however, there is no lack of support for the Gupkar alliance, named after Gupkar Road where the residences of key leaders are located.

    Many see it as an opportunity to participate in a political process in a state used to boycotts, violence, militancy, curfews and lockdown. “For us, the lockdown started not on March 24 but in August 2019 when Article 370, our rights, our livelihood, our mobile connections and the right to protest were taken away and our leaders were put under house arrest,” says Mohd Sadiq, 37, who runs a shikara on Dal Lake.

    In Soura constituency, where polls were held on November 28, the writing on the wall was clear. “Go India Go Back”, “#Pakistan”, “One-Solution-Gun-Solution”, “Azad State of J&K”, “Musa” (Kashmir al-Qaeda unit chief Zakir Musa; security forces killed him in 2019) screamed the wall graffitis in the birthplace of Sheikh Abdullah. Often called mini-Pakistan, it is considered a very sensitive areas of Srinagar.

    Salman Ali Sagar, former MLA and NC candidate from the seat, says: “We want to send a message that we are against the abrogation of Article 370. The BJP is using state machinery in its favour. We do not want to give space to people and parties who do not represent Srinagar.”

    The PAGD has alleged that its candidates were not being allowed to canvass in the pretext of security issues. “Candidates put up by PAGD are being whisked away to secure locations in the name of security and confined to those secure locations,” Farooq Abdullah wrote in a letter to the Election Commission. J&K Chief Election Commissioner KK Sharma said candidates were put up in cluster accommodations for their own security.

    “It doesn’t mean they are being prevented from holding election campaigning.” Apart from the alliance and BJP, Apni Party, floated by former finance minister in the Mufti cabinet Altaf Bukhari, is also trying to make an electoral presence. PAGD has called Bukhari the B-team of the BJP.

    Apni Party is likely to eat the alliance’s votes. Bukhari is unfazed by the allegations. “Anybody who fights elections in Kashmir is either labelled a B-team of Delhi or Pakistan. We know there are problems to be solved in Kashmir. For that I will not shy away from meeting the prime minister or the home minister.”

    People in eight districts ET Magazine went to said they cared for water, electricity and roads more than anything else for now. “We barely get 5-6 hours of power supply, one need to wear boots to enter the lanes of our village due to water logging, water is supplied through tankers. We are so close to Srinagar yet so far from the basic amenities,” says Abdul Ahawadi, who runs a stationery shop in Checki Kawoosa village in Budgam district. The pain points are similar in adjoining Baramullah district.

    But the feeling of discrimination hangs heavy. A railway employee in Baramullah says he feels alienated from India and now favours the alagaovaadis (separatists). “Our family came from Sindh and settled here. We had a sense of belonging for India. When my son joined Delhi University, he was called Kashmiri dehshatgarg (terrorist). He could not stay there and came back.

    Since then we do not take the name of Hindustan in our home.” Many older citizens hope the elections will give some relief to the pain of losing their loved ones to violence. The infamous 1987 elections that alienated a large section of people is seen as a lost opportunity for peace in Kashmir. The DDC elections seem to give a flicker of hope to the people again.


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