Open Forum

29 April 2014, New Delhi

Communalised Poll

JAMMU VS KASHMIR

By Hemal Shringla

“Those who vote for Modi, must go drown in the sea!” thunders Farooq Abdullah in Srinagar. Modi’s riposte? “The Abdullahs are sinners. They drove out the Pandits.”  Election discourse is taking an ugly turn with allegation, counter allegation, abuse and counter abuse till it has clearly become a free for all.

These elections are not just about development. They are tainted by communalism. In J&K this time round, voting patterns indicate a split between constituencies in Jammu and those in the Srinagar valley along communal lines.  The mood amongst Hindus in Jammu is like that in the rest of the country. Theirs is a ‘vote for change’. They have switched allegiance from the Congress to the BJP. In the Valley, however, stalemate prevails.

The Jammu and Udhampur constituencies went to vote on 10^th and 17^th April respectively. The turnout was massive and from all accounts the Modi effect was very much in evidence. People said they were voting for Modi rather than for the candidates concerned. The electorate was divided along communal lines and this was reflected in a comparison of poll percentages in Hindu dominated districts vs Muslim dominated ones. There was an 80 percent turnout in Hindu-dominated Samba, for example, as compared to 64 percent in Poonch or Rajouri which have a higher Muslim population.

These patterns were more or less replicated in the Udhampur constituency. The Congress put up the high profile Union Health Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad as its candidate but there are chances he might very well lose as Jammu seems totally polarized on lines of religion. Take Kishtwar for example. The town had a history of exemplary communal harmony till the riots, which took place there in August last year. A minor incident snowballed into major rioting and arson causing major damage to Hindu-Muslim relations. The words ‘Hindu’ and ‘Muslim’ are now used communally with ‘Hindu’ residents who were affected by the riots accusing the National Conference administration of showing partiality to ‘Muslims’. Several of them have said this was why they had shifted allegiance to the BJP in these elections.

The mood in the Kashmir valley, in contrast, is dull and gloomy and the air is tinged with hopelessness. The main contenders remain the National Conference and the People’s Democratic Party. Election discourse is uninspired, consisting in petty criticism of one party by the other. The NC says the PDP is a stooge of the BJP and the PDP predictably accuses the NC of being a stooge of the Congress. Their positions remain more or less unchanged with the NC reiterating its commitment to autonomy for Kashmir within the Indian Union. The PDP has avoided taking a stand on political issues and has been harping on developmental issues, which is why the NC has accused it of singing Modi’s tune. The separatist JKLF and the All India Hurriyat Conference, on the other hand, have called for a poll boycott whereas the more radical separatist groups have threatened violence.

The Kashmiri people, however, have shown the barest of interest in voting. In the important Anantnag seat where PDP leader, Mehbooba Mufti, contested from, only 30 percent of the electorate came out to cast their vote. With the army in complete control, Kashmiris know they are a disenfranchised lot.

Zafar is 27 years old and from Srinagar. He’s a fitness trainer in Delhi. He’s not going home to vote. “I wouldn’t vote even if I was home. Nothing will change for us”. For him, the army is the the problem. “The soldiers harass Kashmiris, stop us for no reason at check points and speak insultingly. Even if we are polite. Which we are because we don’t want to get into trouble with them. But they continue to humiliate us,” he says. He doesn’t want to debate whether AFSPA is justified or not. Nor does he want to get into the issue of separatism. “The army is corrupt,” he continues. “That’s why they want to remain in Kashmir. They make a lot of money.”

His family owns a wholesale provisions business. They sell brands such as Nestle, P&G etc. According to him, soldiers march in and take what they want. “They want to buy at ridiculous prices. If the wholesale price of an item is eighty rupees, they want it for fifty. We have no option but to sell it to them at that price.” The atmosphere in the Valley was such, he said, that the entire system had become corrupt from top to bottom, from the pettiest official to those at the top.

How were living conditions in the Valley? “Dismal,” said Zafar. “The system is so corrupt, nothing gets done. If it rains for 3-4 days, that’s the end of most of the roads. Water pipes become dysfunctional and you have to get tankers to come and supply water by promising them a bribe.” As for electricity, he continued, his family relied only on inverters. But since voltage was so low in Kashmir, barely 50 watts, charging their battery was problematic. “Life in Kashmir is boring,” he said. “There’s nothing to do, nowhere to go. Half the time some political party or the other calls a bandh (shutdown) or a hartal (strike) and you can’t go out. Just sit at home and watch DVDs.  People are fed up of bandhs.”

When the Hurriyat called a bandh for Afzal Guru, many people opened their shops, he said. Didn’t Kashmiris care about Afzal Guru? “Bandhs are a business,” he explained. “If a party calls a bandh, it gets money for it from some Gulf country or something like that.” So is there really nothing to do, no entertainment in Srinagar? “Eating out,” he said. “Restaurants are a good business.”

Shoaib, 25 years, is from Srinagar too. He is in Delhi, visiting his cousins. He didn’t want to speak about militancy. It was a problem 15-20 years back, he said. “Now it’s just a feeling. People feel they want to be in Pakistan but they’re not actually going to do anything about it.” What about him? Did he think Kashmir would be better off in Pakistan? “There are too many problems in Pakistan,” he replied. So did he prefer India?  “Maybe thirty to forty percent,” he admitted, flashing a bitter grin.

“People want to live their lives, you know, but there are no jobs in Kashmir. Or very poorly paid ones. Like in a car showroom for Rs 3,000-4000 a month,” he said dully. “You have call centres in Jammu,” he continued, “but not in Kashmir. And hardly any banks.” He suddenly looked very serious. “There’s going to be lots of problems with young Kashmiri kids later on, the ones who are 13-14 years old,” he said, troubled.  “They don’t like India”.

It is no secret Kashmiris feel alienated from India. The presence of 700,000 Indian troops in Kashmir is proof enough of this. The BJP wants to start a debate on the relevance of Article 370. The reasons they have proffered would make sense in normal circumstances. But the situation in Kashmir is far from normal, as the elections have only confirmed. Let normalcy return before starting such a debate. ---INFA

(Copyright, India News & Feature Alliance)