Like any other Lok Sabha elections of the past the ongoing elections to the Lower House of Indian Parliament too have had many elements which showed more than normal resemblance with the legendary and epochal exercise of ‘Samudra Manthan’ (i.e. churning of the seas). Besides being the biggest event of physical human involvement and logistics of today’s world, this was also a unique and mammoth exercise in reaching out to more than 900 million individuals by many Parties and candidates with contradicting messages.
For the voters too it was a unique opportunity to choose between the two competing sides whom they had to perceive as the ‘Dewatas’ (Gods) or the ‘Asuras’ (Deamons) as per their own personal evaluation. It was a mammoth churning of enlightening as well as not so palatable debates which produced good quantities of ‘Halahal’ (poison) as well the ‘Amrit’ (Nectar) that would decide the fate of world’s largest democracy — if not for a long future, then surely for next five years.
But beyond this hullabaloo this 5-year cyclic exercise too has had its pleasant surprises this time. The most notable surprise was the outstanding and never-before kind of participation of the people of Kashmir Valley in the exercise of electing their representatives for the Indian Parliament.
The Kashmiri voters of Pulwama and Anantnag, hitherto considered to be the playground of AK-47 totting Kashmiri and Pakistani terrorists, outnumbered the voters of cities like Delhi and Mumbai in casting their ballot. While the Pulwama voters broke their own 28 year old record of voting (46.65 percent in 1996) by casting 59.1pc votes, Srinagar voters too bypassed their previous voting of 14.4 pc in 2019 by jumping nearly three times to 38.5 pc.
It is worth noting that until the last Lok Sabha elections of 2019 and the subsequent nullification of Article-370 and Article-35A a couple of months later from the Indian constitution, at least two of the three living generations of Kashmir Valley have had no concept of a peaceful life or a successive stretch of two days without a public strike, curfew, violent public demonstrations, stone pelting, terror killings or police firing.
So much was the demand of the times that obeying the Hurriyat diktats to ‘boycott elections’ whenever New Delhi held elections in the Valley used to be considered as a more stringent duty by most Kashmiris than offering five times Namaz on that day.
The non-Kashmiri Indians too, living on the southern side of the Pir Panjal mountains, who had even an iota of interest in what was happening in the Kashmir Valley, can never forget the front-page photos of most national dailies which showed a colour TV lying at the entrance of a voting booth of Srinagar under a placard which announced loudly “This colour TV shall belong to the voter who dares to be the first voter in this polling booth.”
The terror of Hurriyat and its fellow terrorist groups used to be so stark in the Valley that that in the 2017 Lok Sabha by-elections Srinagar recorded only 7.14 pc voting. In 2002 Assembly elections 6 constituencies of Kashmir recorded less than 5 pc votes while less than 20 pc voter turnout was observed in 15 constituencies.
It only suited those parties and leaders who could manage the boycott calls of the separatists and terrorists in their own favour. The Congress candidate in Amirakadal in 2002 could make his way to the Assembly with just 1163 votes i.e. just 1.5 pc of the total electorates. In 1989 Anantnag Lok Sabha seat saw only 5.07 pc votes while Baramulla sent Saifuddin Soz as its Lok Sabha MP just through a total polling of 5.48 pc.
The other interesting side of this overwhelming response of ordinary Kashmiri citizens towards the Parliament elections was that not a single call was given for any public strike against the elections and not a single poster was plastered on the city walls to call for the boycott of elections. To the utter disappointment of western propaganda vehicles like the BBC, New York Times, Washington Post and Al-Jazeera there was not a single polling booth this time in the Valley with could win the distinction of being a “Zero Vote” booth and could be paraded before the international audience as a sign of failure of New Delhi in Kashmir.
For a large section of Indian media too, who would otherwise blindly follow the India-bashing western media, it was amazing to see the final impact of five years of consistent peace on the minds and mood of Kashmiri voters. Even if for a change, most of the India English expressed its awe over long queues of Kashmiri voters waiting for their turn to vote.
One of India’s prominent English dailies from South, known for promoting the cause of militants of Kashmir and Maoist terrorists since four decades, was gaga about the public enthusiasm and participation in the polls. Under an unusual heading “With 59% voter turnout, Baramulla breaks previous poll record” it said, “large number of women, relatives of active militants and even the cadre of the banned Jamaat-e-Islami came out to cast their votes this time.
This enthusiastic response of Kashmiris in the democratic process was equally visible in the entire process leading to the final day of voting. Earlier overwhelming participation of village and block level local leaders in the Block and Zilla Councils of the State after the abrogation of Article-370 had clearly indicated that the days of dominance of Kashmiri politics by a small group of family fiefdoms, called the ‘Gupkar Road Gang’ was on its last legs in the Valley.
This time the Lok Sabha elections to show this trend. In Srinagar 24 candidates are in the fray which include 8 belonging to recognized political parties. In Baramulla’s 22 candidates 8 belong to such parties while the respective numbers in Anantnag-Rajouri there are 20 and 10. Interestingly BJP has chosen to play a different ball game by not nominating any candidate to any of the three seats in the Valley this time.
While many anti-Modi international propaganda vehicles like Al-Jazeera and BBC have tried to paint it as a ploy of BJP to hide its ‘unpopularity’ in the Valley, the real intention of the Party seems to have worked perfectly as no parties or the leaders of the Valley could think of joining hands against the BJP. Best proof is that even when the National Conference and PDP are members of the INDI Alliance they are fighting each other on all three seats of the Valley. This strategy of BJP might show some interesting results from the Valley on 4th June.
All said and done to show that the election response in the Valley is a healthy sign of return of democracy to Kashmir. But the Indian as well international forces who don’t want to see Kashmiri separatism to die and those who are allergic to Modi and BJP’s plans in Kashmir too have not given up. Rather, there are signs showing that such forces are now getting more active to short circuit the process of normalcy in this part of India.
The issue of the ‘Khan Market Gang’ influencing the decision-making forums including the Supreme Court has got into public radar quite prominently in recent years. Last December when the Supreme Court gave its judgment upholding the constitutional validity of scrapping of Article-370, the bench’s simultaneous instructions to the Election Commission to hold Assembly elections by 30 Sep of 2024 and asking the Central government to ‘restore statehood’ of J&K received public attention.
In some people’s views it was a case of judicial ‘activism’. And there were no less talks about the influence of the ‘Khan Market Gang’ behind the idea of restoring statehood because this issue clearly false under the political judgment and wisdom of the Centre.
This judgment of the highest court has given new energy to all those divisive and separatist forces of J&K whose only agenda is to keep the Kashmiri cauldron boiling and building up human rights narratives against the Indian government.
Latest comments of a popular English journalist of India, who has become a celebrated symbol of the Khan Market community, are a clear indication of where the things are going to lead in that community after a highly impressive show of faith in democracy by the ordinary people of Kashmir.
This ‘reputed’ journalist whose YouTube shows that his following is in millions and he is known for issuing long comments on every issue under the sun, has presented an interesting interpretation of what he saw during his visit to Srinagar, especially his old contacts in the Down Town area of the city which has lived up to its reputation of the ‘Islamabad’ of India. He looks impressed by the presence of big hoardings of reputed Indian coaching institutions across the city because these coaching institutions offer services to the young aspirants of UPSC and other coveted jobs in the Indian government.
These hoardings and the return of social life to a city which had shut down every single cinema hall on the diktats of Hurriyat and other terrorist groups for decades, have overwhelmed and encouraged this opinion leader to such an extent that he is now advising the Modi government to release all the terrorists, separatists and other Kashmiri youths from jails who were responsible for holding the entire Kashmir valley to ransom. To support his case for the release of these ‘youths’ he gives examples of ‘poor’ parents who have to travel to distant cities of India where their wards are locked in jails for various crimes.
Don’t be surprised if all ‘Special Purpose Propaganda Vehicles’ (SPPVs), launched by the west over past many decades like the Amnesty International, Human Right Watch, Oxfam, other likes of the Reporters Without Borders and tamed media groups like BBC, NYT, Washington Post, Al-Jazeera and their Indian lackeys start a fresh campaign for the ‘restoration’ of the statehood for J&K.
These forces have realized that the focused policy of the Centre to bring back peace in the Kashmir valley has started impacting the thinking of ordinary Kashmiris about the futility of violence, separatism and terrorism. Hence these forces would now go to any extent to dismantle the current administrative system and replace it back with the old Kashmir dominated state government in which the police, administration and MLAs were prone to pressures and provide a fertile ground for separatism and terrorism.
The choice of Kashmiri people in selection of their representatives for the Indian Parliament will be finally known only after the counting of votes concludes on 4th June. But this impressive participation of Kashmiri voter in these elections decisively reflects the new confidence of ordinary Kashmiris in the democratic process with same assertion as in the rest of India.
This proves the undoubted efficacy of peace and the rehabilitation of law and order which have come to stay in the Valley since abrogation of Article-370. Keeping this faith of people of Kashmir alive in the future too will be a challenge for the next government in New Delhi. This would surely call for a close watch over the Indian woke-biradari made of the likes of the Khan Market Gang and its foreign supporters in the Valley.
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