A grand applause has greeted record-breaking voter turnout in three Lok Sabha seats in Kashmir Valley. A desert for electoral politics has suddenly started looking as an oasis in reality Spring was over by the time polling began in Kashmir- Srinagar constituency was the first to go to polls on May 13, Baramulla on May 20, and Anantnag –Rajouri on May 25, and by that summer had set in, but the real bloom spung at the polling stations. It was a beautiful sight.
The top leadership of the country, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah , have attributed this high turnout of voters to the atmosphere that was brought about in Kashmir after the abrogation of Article 370. The scrapping of this Article, along with Article 35-A, told the people of Jammu and Kashmir where they stood in the Indian union – special status, rights and privileges were things of the past. Now they will have to live as pure Indians as per the Indian constitution – separate constitution and flags of the state were buried once and for all, and they should forget about their exclusive rights to land and jobs. Now Home Minister Amit Shah has made it clear that the families or children of terrorists will not get government jobs.
Analysts and leaders from BJP have linked it to the calm atmosphere after the abrogation of Article 370 to fearless voting by Kashmiri Muslims in the Lok Sabha polls. That is a superficial assessment of the situation. History bears testimony to the fact that Article 370 was never a barrier between the polling booths and voters. The paradox too is there that Article 370 kept the illusion alive that Kashmiris could get something more than what they had in the 20th and early part of the 21st century. Their disillusionment with the vote came with the 1987 Assembly elections
This time they wanted to give vote a chance to deliver on their aspirations. Their expectations and aspirations range from the basic amenities like “Sadak, Bijli, Pani “ or road connectivity, electricity, and water, to a dignified place in the Indian Union. “Consider and treat us as Indians like it’s done in other parts of the country. That was the refrain by the new regional political group Jammu and Kashmir Apni Party and People’s Conference of Sajad Gani Lone. National Conference and PDP are still the forces to reckon with in Kashmir politics pitched for the restoration of identity and dignity of the people lost with the abrogation of Article 370.
An unbiased study of the situation ahead of polls and during the polling has brought two more factors into play in Kashmir politics that encouraged the voting. Jamaat-i-Islami ‘s role in s nudging voters to vote, and All Parties Hurriyat Conference chief and chief priest Mirwaiz Umar Farooq saying that the poll boycott calls have lost relevance.
There is much to be read between the lines in these statements. Jamaat leader Ghulam Qadir Wani held a press conference on May 15 – two days after the Srinagar polling ( May 13) and four days ahead of the Baramulla polling ( May 20) and ten days before Anantnag polling ( May 25) that Jamaat -i-Islami is ready to take part in Assembly polls provided ban imposed on it since February 2019 is lifted. It was read as a simple appeal for revocation of the ban imposed on it in the aftermath of the Pulwama terror attack on February 14, 2019, but the meaning was not all about the lifting of the ban. Its strands had deeper meaning. It sought to set up a narrative, rather reaffirm, that the fight against the mighty India is futile, so it is better to extend a hand of reconciliation to Delhi to help the latter to claim that its methodology has also encouraged the separatist and anti-India elements to join. The mainstream. As it cannot be done through street demonstrations, the best option was to tell Delhi what it loves to hear the most that we are taking part in the elections – first through voting in Lok Sabha polls and next fielding candidates in Assembly polls.
Barring a few hardliners like Syed Ali Shah Geelani who died in 2021 after parting ways with Pakistan and its ideology a year earlier, Jamaat was opposed to the armed militancy in Kashmir. It could foresee death and destruction. In an interview with Yusuf Jameel, a respected and credible journalist in the Valley with a grip on national and international affairs, Saaduddin Tarabeli top Jamaat leader, had told him that the armed militancy would be “disastrous“ for Kashmir. It was in 1990 when the militancy had started gaining acceptance in the Valley, as many believed that the guns and bombs could deliver what street movements could not.
Jamaat had last contested elections in 1987 as a constituent of Muslim United Front, a conglomeration of Kashmir Muslim -centric parties ( Awami Action Committee of the Mirwaiz family and People’s Conference of Lone were not parts of the group). Syed Ali Shah Geelani was among the four elected on MUF ticket. The whole idea of rigging of the 1987 polls revolves around about the MUF not winning as many seats as it should have. The rigged elections marred its prospects in many seats. The classic case of Mohammad Yusuf Shah who contested and made to lose in the Amirakadal constituency is cited as to how the situation changed in favour of militancy after the elections were rigged. That Shah is now Salaha-ud-Din supremo of Hizb-ul-Mujahadeen, currently based in Pakistan and figures in the list of wanted terrorists.
Jamaat’s talk of returning to electoral politics is aimed at getting the ban lifted, but at the same time it is angling for the re-opening of its schools, and return of youth languishing in jails. A crucial role was played by Apni Party chief Syed Altaf Bukhari in changing the dynamics . He as the first leader to ask for the lifting of the ban on Jamaat, reopening of their schools. He is also demanding that the jailed youth be released . His word is taken seriously in Delhi as he has played a card of Indian nationalism even in the absence of BJP and to the annoyance of his rivals.
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