Why are Kashmiris heading to the polls?
Kashmiri leaders under house arrest I must, at the outset, admit that I have never been to Kashmir. I have watched it keenly with a journalist’s eye from distant Mumbai for over 14 years. Every time I think about it – as a newspaperman and as an Indian – the same questions keep popping up in my head. Will peace ever return to Kashmir? Does Kashmir have the option to be anything other than a state that’s part of, yet at odds with, the Indian democratic mix?
Until a year and a half ago, the answer would probably have been ‘no’. While Kashmir has had duly elected state governments for a while now, nobody considered the situation on the ground to be anything like the rest of India.
But something seems to have changed. In a marked departure from the high of separatism, the state assembly elections last year saw voters flock to the polling booths. Three million of Jammu and Kashmir’s 4.8 million voters exercised their franchise — a 62 per cent turnout compared to 44 per cent the previous time. And suddenly, the issues of the moment didn’t seem detached from those in the rest of the country. As in other parts of India, bad roads, poor governance, education and jobs seemed to be the magnets that pulled people to voting stations.
The state assembly election was hard-fought, replete with the mud-slinging, aggression and hypocrisy that are so much a part of Indian politics. But that too seemed welcome in far-off Mumbai because it seemed familiar, resembling any other Indian assembly election. Kashmir began to have fewer degrees of separation from India.
Recently, my colleague in Delhi, Monalisa Arthur, travelled to Kashmir for a pre-parliamentary-election series commissioned by the Hindustan Times. She asked Kashmiris what led to the sudden change in their thinking.
She writes: ‘It’s a baffling U-turn few Kashmiris have been able to explain, or understand.… Growing aspirations mean youngsters, though still politically conscious, are increasingly aware of what they have lost in terms of economic and career development over the last two decades. The large voter turnout in November is seen by some as a move by the youth to try and find a place in Indian polity. ‘The agitation was a people’s movement. The elections … well, it was time for change. Plus, our generation connects with our young leader [Omar Abdullah],’ says Hashim, sipping cappuccino at Coffee Arabica.
‘Nazir Bhat (27) scoffs from across the table. ‘It is the Kashmiri character,’ says the young businessman.... ‘We are opportunists; we go with whatever is most advantageous for us at that moment.’’
Which viewpoint is correct? What if both are? After all, everyone has a different motivation to vote. Some of us want a safer economic future, others want a person from their community in a position of power, and still others look for those who can provide security. Whatever the motivation, participation in the election is a vote for the democracy you live in. And Kashmir voted—not at gunpoint, but because it wanted to.
Take, for example, Uri, just 20 kilometres from the Line of Control, which has borne the brunt of the standoff between Indian and Pakistani forces. The mountainous area was one of the early routes for infiltration. Last November, 80 per cent of its electorate voted. That’s phenomenally high in a country where a 50 per cent turnout is considered healthy. The turnout even made the Kashmir state’s high average of 62 per cent seem low in comparison.
Interestingly, during her tour of Kashmir, Arthur discovered the same voter motivations that are witnessed across India. ‘The battle now is against poor governance in Kashmir’s high-security border areas, often ignored by political parties and deprived of schools, jobs and any signpost of progress in a state that has purportedly spent at least Rs 50,000 crore of taxpayer money on development over the last two decades of insurgency.… Young jobless men sit in the town market all day, doing nothing. Roads are pockmarked with huge puddles of dirty water.… Three hydropower projects feed the national grid, but residents get only five or six hours of electricity per day,’ she wrote.
The fact that such matters now dominate Kashmiri politics is a huge step toward real integration with the Indian mainstream. Voter priorities in the state indicate that the focus may be slowly shifting from the militancy-separatism debate to local issues that affect people’s daily lives.
Sajjad Ghani Lone’s decision to contest the elections could be symptomatic of this mood. Lone is the son of slain Hurriyat leader Abdul Ghani Lone and a known separatist. That he’s chosen to participate in the Indian electoral process could be an indicator of the way Kashmir is thinking. It could, of course, be plain opportunism as well. Either way, India is looking forward to May 16, when votes for Kashmir’s six Lok Sabha (lower house of parliament) seats will be counted. There could be a message in the ballot.
Ashraf Engineer is Associate Editor at the Hindustan Times, Mumbai. Hindustan Times has eight editions across India. He can be reached at ashraf.engineer@gmail.com. He also writes a blog, www.mumbaiinsomniac.wordpress.com.
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