First Person | A Nobel for Mr Modi

Ghazala Wahab

It’s no secret that Kashmir is an emotive issue for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). So emotive that when it comes to the Kashmir Valley, the supposedly nationalist and politically astute party loses all semblance of pragmatism. Starting with 5 August 2019, when it revoked the Constitutional Articles 370 and 35A, robbing Jammu and Kashmir of the illusion of being special, even when autonomy was a chimera, it has been blundering its way into a blind alley with a dead end.

The latest salvo by the BJP-led Union government is allowing the ‘ordinarily residing’ people of the now Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir to register as voters in the assembly elections whenever they are held. This category of ordinarily residing people would include security personnel (military and the central armed police forces) deployed in Jammu & Kashmir, government employees and their families, students, traders and casual labour. Anyone who lives there and desires to vote in the Jammu & Kashmir assembly elections can get themselves deregistered from their home state and register in Jammu & Kashmir.

There are two worrying aspects to this. From the Kashmiri perspective, this would amount to stealing of the election. The Kashmir Valley traditionally sees poor voter turnout in the urban areas, though more people vote in the assembly elections than in the general elections. But after the revocation of Article 370, there is a lot of uncertainty about the mood of the people and their trust in the local political parties.

While a certain class of people in the cities always dismissed them as ‘unionists,’ or those who stood with the government of India rather than with the people of Kashmir, they were still regarded as necessary for the delivery of basic administrative matters of ‘bijli, paani, sadak’. But now with the cover of Article 370 gone, the haplessness of the unionists has cast a shadow on their capacity to deliver at all. If all decisions have to be taken in New Delhi, might as well be on the good side of the party that is in power in New Delhi. At least, it will shorten the bureaucratic rope and may accrue short term benefits to select groups of people. And if that has to happen, what’s wrong with governor’s rule.

Besides, the only reason the outsiders would want to register themselves as voters here after going through the process of deregistering from the home state is because they expect a political objective to be achieved. Moreover, given the BJP’s will to power, there could be an effort to subvert local votes, either by dividing them or overwhelming them by fielding multiple non-serious candidates in select constituencies. While this may or may not happen, this is the perception. For instance, both the Apni Party and the People’s Conference are regarded as facilitators of the BJP in the Valley.

The second worrying aspect has national implications. If personnel from the military, police and the bureaucracy choose to take the trouble to vote in Kashmi