Jammu and Kashmir’s new elected elite

The blood-drenched bodies of two National Conference (NC) functionaries — Mushtaq Ahmad Wani and Nazir Ahmad Bhat — who were killed in old Srinagar and an attempt on the life of Congress party’s candidate for Hajin urban local body has once again highlighted the grim cost of democracy in the troubled state of Jammu and Kashmir. Ironically, some 30 years ago, in 1989, militancy came knocking on its doors by carrying out the first assassinations — the killing of NC activist Mohammad Yusuf Halwai and local Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Takka Lal Taplo in the same locality. In a bid to see the return of democracy at ground zero, the government’s attempt to sidestep the concerns of region’s the two major political formations — the National Conference (NC) and the Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP) — and ignore the overwhelmingly explosive situation has made the entire exercise exclusive rather than inclusive. The PDP and the NC have 43 MLAs in the 87-member assembly. That means half of the state’s legislative footprint is out of the fray. Kashmir has its political class vertically split.

Separatists have remained disengaged from electoral processes after the mass manipulation of the 1987 polls. Now when the two Kashmiri mainstream parties also step aside, it will either deal a deadly blow to a pro-India political lexicon or lead to the emergence of a new political class.

So far, it appears that in the absence of major players in the fray, more than 200 candidates have been elected uncontested. Besides, in another 177 municipal wards, nobody filed nomination papers. In this milieu, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has a field day, winning at least 60 wards unopposed in the Kashmir region and it is expected to cross 70 wards. The party, which did not have any presence in Kashmir Valley fielded 325 candidates — the highest ever in the electoral history of the state. The four-phase polls for urban local bodies in the state will be held on October 8, 10, 13 and 16. Noted Kashmiri analyst Mohammad Sayeed Malik believes that as the BJP hates Kashmir’s two main political parties equally, it is working tirelessly to have its own socio-political foothold in Kashmir on the lines of the North-East. “They are not scared of anything, they mean business regardless of the costs. The BJP may not need huge constituencies but it is keen to have ‘pockets of influence’ because that suits its politics, which is primarily to replace the Congress party.

Boycott of elections has remained a key instrument in Kashmir’s democratic history. In fact, the very first elections for the Jammu and Kashmir Constituent Assembly in 1951 was boycotted by the RSS-backed Jammu Praja Parishad. The Parishad had initially announced its intention to contest 28 out of 30 seats allocated to Jammu. However, when the nomination papers of its 13 candidates were rejected, it announced a boycott shortly before the polling. Consequently, all NC candidates were declared as winners. But when the NC leader Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah was dismissed and arrested in 1953, it was the turn of his party to stay away from electoral processes till 1975. During this period between 1953 and 1975, the Congress party had a field day, winning election after election in the absence of any opponent and thereby ruling the state. The absence of popular leadership in the assembly during this period led to innumerable constitutional changes and unilateral erosion of the state’s special position guaranteed earlier by the Centre. From 1954 to 1977, some 39 constitution (application to J&K) orders were issued, with each order extending more provisions of the Indian Constitution to the state. Parliament also extended 262 Central laws to the state up to 1973. The process largely stopped only after the return of the Sheikh Abdullah-led National Conference to the assembly in 1975.

In the May 1996 Lok Sabha elections, the NC once again boycotted, which resulted in the Congress and Janata Dal winning the elections. One of them, a little-known political activist, Mohamad Maqbool Dar, even became the Minister of State for Home in the United Front governments of HD Deve Gowda and Inder Kumar Gujral. In the current situation as well, individuals who were on the margins of politics or were merely aspiring to join politics have joined the municipal and panchayat bandwagon. In the absence of any real contest on one side and lack of better participation, they will make it to the corridors of power. While assuming that power is basic to politics, in Kashmir, ironically power has come first and legitimacy later. Already the security paraphernalia is being put in place for these new politicians. It seems the government is also sure that after the polls, they will not stay in their native places, but will have to shift to secure places in Srinagar. Chief Secretary BVR Subramanyam said they have kept 300 hotel rooms in Srinagar ready for their security. The buzz in Srinagar was that the government has withdrawn as many as 30 security escort vehicles from the NC and the PDP  to accommodate the emerging political class. The government has also extended a life insurance cover of Rs 10 lakh to each participant in the elections.

Those who will eventually hold offices in urban local bodies and the panchayats will have access to a lot of funds. Subramanyam said Jammu and Kashmir has lost Rs 4,300 crore awarded by the Fourteenth Finance Commission because of the absence of these grass-roots level institutions. The next award will offer more funds and a panchayat can have more than Rs 40 lakh available to it along with the right to raise taxes and create its own revenue, he added. In politics, funds lead to influence and that eventually becomes a political capital. In the current assembly, which is in suspended animation, there are more than half a dozen lawmakers who have earlier served in panchayats. It has to be seen that whether this lot of grass-roots level activists will transform into a new political class or become a nightmare for the security establishment. Or, create a new tier of corruption leading the region closer to the brink.

The author is Editor, Strategic Affairs for DNA. Views are personal