separatist leader Sajjad Lone stands in election in Kashmir

[Khajur]

Tension in Kashmir as separatist leader Sajjad Lone stands in election

From The TimesMay 13, 2009

Rhys Blakely in Mumbai


Hopes for a political settlement in Indian-controlled Kashmir were lifted yesterday when a separatist leader stood in a general election for the first time since a bloody insurgency erupted in the region 20 years ago.

The disputed Himalayan territory voted on the final day of India’s month-long election. With the first exit polls showing no outright winner, the stage is now set for a frantic round of political horse trading to decide the country’s next government after the results become known on Saturday.

Sajjad Lone, 42, stood in Baramulla, a constituency renowned as a hotbed of militancy close to India’s border with Pakistan. Although he insisted that “fighting elections is a change of strategy and not ideology”, he was branded a traitor by rival separatists who called for a boycott of the polls.

Kuldip Nayar, a political analyst, said: “This candidate is a straw in the wind. If he wins, more separatists may follow suit. The danger is that hard-core extremists are forced to become even more extreme.”

Ajit Doval, a former director of India’s Intelligence Bureau, told The Times that Pakistan’s powerful Directorate of Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) would be among those wrongfooted if Kashmiris chose to pursue their aims through the ballot box.

He said that the ISI had consistently backed militant groups fighting Indian forces in Kashmir during the insurgency that has claimed at least 47,000 lives.

Kashmir was one of seven states and two union territories to vote in the largest democratic poll yet held. Neither of India’s two main parties is expected to win the 272 seats required to secure a majority and Congress, which leads the ruling coalition, and the Hindu nationalist BJP will have to court regional and caste-based parties to win power.

Three women are tipped to emerge as king-makers in that process. Mayawati, a controversial politician who has courted India’s Dalit (“Untouchable”) community, is expected to control up to 40 of Parliament’s 543 seats. Jayalalithaa Jayaram, a former Bollywood singer who leads the opposition state government in Tamil Nadu, is expected to wield up to 30. Mamata Banerjee, an anti-industrialist firebrand from West Bengal, could win 15.

Also key will be India’s Communists, who control a Left bloc expected to win at least 40 seats. They may stand in the way of the reappointment of Manmohan Singh, the Prime Minister, after he forced through a deal that gave India access to civil nuclear technology from the US last year. The Left said that the deal made India a lackey of the West and withdrew its support from Congress, which nearly forced the collapse of the Government.

Most predictions and early exit polls have Congress slightly ahead of the BJP after both parties launched campaigns that gave priority to attacks on rivals.

Tension in Kashmir as separatist leader Sajjad Lone stands in election - Times Online

 

[sob]

A thawing up north

It is a shift in strategy, not ideology,” insisted Sajjad Lone after casting his vote in Handwara, Kashmir. The separatists’ hero, who is contesting Lok Sabha elections this time, claims that his decision to plunge into the electoral fray was prompted by the failure of his last boycott call and his desire

to be a “legitimate representative” of his people.

It says a lot about Kashmir’s current mood that elections can endow legitimacy on Lone’s politics. Not just the fact that elections are a constructive alternative to voice disaffections, and a way to wean away more pragmatic members of such groups into the mainstream and splinter their solidarity. The 2002 assembly elections held out the promise that it was possible to conduct the democratic contest with sincerity and fair-mindedness, and by now there seems little doubt that Kashmiris are emphatically choosing every option available to make their presence felt. The last assembly elections were also remarkable and rousing, drawing a record number of voters. Lone’s decision to contest should not be an occasion for some elsewhere in India to crow, or draw hasty conclusions about the waning of the separatist impulse, but a reminder of the tremendous trust reposed in Indian democracy — one that it must try its damnedest to live up to. For now, we’re entitled to feel a historical frisson in the enthusiasm of young, first-time voters rallying around Lone and pulling out all the stops for an electoral fight.

This was an OP-ED in Indian Express, today. Very nice points raised by the writer.