The results of Kargil Hill Council polls, held for the first time since the abrogation of Article 370 and the creation of Ladakh as Union Territory, National Conference – a die hard Kashmir-centric party, and Congress alliance have emerged as winners trouncing BJP. The two parties have won 22 out of 26 for which the polls were held is stupendous performance, given the odds against them. NC, in particular, was projected as an outsider political entity in the UT of Ladakh – the party had to fight a long legal battle to get its symbol on the ballot. The battle had reached the Supreme Court. This, in itself had the election unique. The voters of Kargil have spoken with a clear mind as to which side of the fence they stand, though the BJP may draw consolation that it scored victory on two seats and lost three others with a close margin, but its performance doesn’t justify the claims that it had been making for more than four years since the abrogation of Article 370. In clear terms, Kargil has sent a message that it is not amused by the UT status for Ladakh, which it considers an unequal and discriminated lot.
This has upturned the calculations of those who thought that the last four years after the abrogation of the special status of Jammu and Kashmir, of which Ladakh, was an integral part before its separation as UT was announced in August 2019, had changed the political landscape and the parties like NC and Congress had no future.
For the rest of the nation for which Kargil is etched in the collective memory as a land where more than 500 officers and soldiers of the Indian army sacrificed their lives to evict Pakistani infiltrators from trans-Himalayan heights in the summer of 1999, this political message may not travel because the national media will not talk about it in detail. Even the news of the poll victory of the National Conference and Congress has been given a passing reference.
Of the 30 seats in Ladakh Autonomous Hill Council, Kargil, the elections were held for 26 seats as four are nominated seats. Of these 26 seats, National Conference has won 12 seats, Congress 10, BJP and independents have won two seats each. In short, NC and Congress alliance won 22 out of 26 seats, thus registering on more than 84 percent of seats, though in the overall calculation, the number of seats in the House of 30 will count for less – slightly over 73 percent. These are cool numbers.
What’s Hill Council, and why it matter? The idea of the Hill Council emerged as a compromise formula after Ladakh’s Buddhists launched a very strong agitation in 1989 seeking UT status for the Ladakh region, as they wanted to get out of the yoke of the Kashmiri rule and assert their separate political and ethnic identity. The agitation was supported by Buddhists in Leh, the largest of the two districts of the region. Kargil, a Shia Muslim dominated region, was opposed to it. Kargil always wanted to remain politically connected with Kashmir Valley. Ladakh region is separated by the mighty Zojilla pass in the Himalayas from the Valley. Leh Buddhists felt that their identity was being compromised and they were not getting their due under the Kashmir-centric ruling parties. Both Leh Buddhists and Kargil Muslims had their reasons to validate their concern.
Immediately after the 1989 agitation, Kashmir was gripped with unprecedented turmoil because of the Pakistan sponsored terrorism and inter and internal unrest. The government lost all focus on all the issues. While there was no political; government in Srinagar after Farooq Abdullah government resigned on January 19, 1990, Delhi was stunned and overwhelmed shape and scale of militancy in Kashmir. It lost all directions and stayed clueless about Jammu and Kashmir. Delhi attempted different methods, military and political, to calm militancy, but its policies were more of firefighting than securing any long-term solution. The weak governments at the Centre had become a bane. In 1989, the V P Singh government imploded under the weight of its own contradictions of Mandal versus Kmandal – that is more reservation for scheduled caste and other backward castes versus BJP’s ultra-Hindutva campaign for Ram Mandir. The successive governments too were caught in their dilemma.
Finally, the Government was able to work out a formula that autonomous hill councils be constituted in Leh and Kargil districts. In 1995, this was given a practical shape, and Leh went in for it, Kargil Muslims, however, rejected it, for they thought that it would take them away from Kashmir. Kargil, however, was persuaded by the Mufti Mohammad Sayeed Government to have the elected autonomous hill council. First hill council, Kargil, were held in 2003 and since then it has never looked back.
With NC- the Congress alliance’s stupendous victory in the polls – the Muslim majority Kargil has sent a clear message that how they feel about the things post-August 2019. Kargil has spoken. The elections and results might appear as a tiny spot from a remote Kargil mountains, but those who understand the demographic composition of Kargil and that of Kashmir Valley and some parts of Jammu region, this is a prelude to the things to come in all forthcoming elections in Jammu and Kashmir. It has offered a glimpse that the Muslims have their own way of political thinking and they would give their verdict the way they wish to, irrespective of the narratives of the development and nationalism.
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