Should KPs Participate in Elections.  

S Krishan Kaul 

(The author, a prominent member of Panun Kashmir Movement, says that voting is meaningless for KPs before full restoration of their basic and fundamental rights as citizens of Kashmir. He advocates consensus within the community about this sensitive issue. Our readers are requested to give their opinions briefly on the subject, to be carried in this journal Editor)

The much talked about and media-published move about proposed pushed through by way of holding Assembly elections in the armed strife-torn state of Jammu & Kashmir is viewed by PANUN KASHMIR MOVEMENT as contrary to existing ground realities. It is a sad and disappointing commentary on the unrealistic perceptions of the powers that be The prevailing security environment in the State, especially Kashmir valley, is not conducive for elections, considering the reality of the terrible crisis having direct bearing on the fate and future of Kashmiri Hindu community. The facts are:

1. The militarized fundamentalist terrorism in the Valley & Doda district is going on unabated.

2. The political forum of separatist Muslim militancy, Le Hurriat leadership, is totally averse to any initiative to create conducive conditions for return of exiled Kashmiri Hindus. In fact, Prof. Ghani has made it amply clear to the journalist, Sunil Sethi, that "Hurriat'' could not assure the protection to the Kashmiri Hindu community and that they owe an explanation if not an apology to the people of the valley" Specifically, they refuse to coexist with us.

3. Even the National Conference, a frontline political party in the state, is for the boycott of the proposed election which according to its leadership is against the will of the people.

4. Kashmiri Hindu community is displaced and rendered a refugee in its own state and the country.

5. All along Kashmiri Hindus have been denied and deprived of their effective political representation by sustained machinations of the political culture of communal majoritarianism in the state under the garb of its special status.

6. Today, Muslims in Kashmir are sceptical towards secularism and do not subscribe to the Indian system of governance and its democratic content. Boycott of duties during Amarnath Yatra by the Muslim officials of the valley and later refusing to participate in the electoral process followed by resignations of some key officers including a Judge is a clear pointer in this direction.

7. Having lived through five years of forced exile in a territory outside the original residence, i.e. Kashmir valley under the most pathetic, in-human and humiliating conditions has put the future of our progeny at stake.

8. The emotional integration with India and its professed secular democratic system over the years since 1947 has been put to question by Muslim fundamentalist culture in the State. More especially Kashmiri Muslims have failed to speak against the special status in the given conditions.

9. Our displacement from our homes and hearths promoted by the gun culture of Muslims in the valley is in fact the murder of secular democratic forces to which the entire Hindu minority community of Kashmir has been dedicated as staunch nationalists.

10. All along since the accession of the state to India, discrimination against Kashmiri Hindu community has been a fact of life. Last 47 years have subjected us to distress.

11. We have experienced sufferings because of discrimination which goes on unchecked The governing principles covering merits of being free citizens of free India are being grossly abused in our case. Under prevailing conditions this helpless community is living a life of ignominy, deprivation, insecurity, depression, disease and alienation.

12  Are we really the ordinary citizens of the Jammu & Kashmir state despite the directive of the CEC to treat us as ordinary residents of places at which we were originally listed for the purpose of electoral rolls Does mere mention in a gazette make us ordinary residents?

13. Are we competent to exercise our free and fair franchise when we are not being treated at par with other ordinary citizens of different regions of the State? For example, we don't even get the same quality and quota of rations here in exile to which we were entitled in the valley.

14. Having been systematically marginalized, in a sustained manner, by the State administration from education to economy has resulted in the dispersal and disintegration of Kashmiri Hindu community.

15. Can the community, rendered irrelevant, reduced to a non-entity and made to live on doles, exercise its right of vote freely?

16. Under the prevailing conditions in the state, the double-edged sword of communalism and regionalism is cutting us off our roots. It has only created a mass sense of helplessness within the community with the result that we are being traded as sacrificial pawns by vested interests.

17. Being peculiarly a "permanent minority" in the State, we are being pushed through the scheme of fragmentation under the dispensation of electoral process. We are also facing a terribly hostile attitude of the separatist forces in the valley.

18. Government of India has failed in its constitutional obligation not only to safeguard our fundamental rights as free citizens of this country but also failed to protect our life, honour, properties and places of worship in the valley.

19. Any political and electoral process is irrelevant for the Kashmiri Hindu community because in it nothing much is to change for this community in absence of the constitutional guarantees and other fundamental rights.

20. The exposition of the misery and plight of this hapless community in the international fora without any serious effort to mitigate our sufferings and hardships exposes the double standards of the Government of India. Our forced exile has vividly demonstrated how brazenly this community has been segregated as outcasts and lesser species.

The fact is that this community is not only caught in the vortex of murky political drama but also the games of political jugglery. Anything done to swindle as well as cajole us through various means within the command of powers that be and power-brokers is to make us a party to further the already existing communal precedence of Kashmiri Muslims More so we don't have any choice when the perpetrators and promoters of gun culture and separatist militants are being persuaded to get involved in the proposed political process/elections through allurements of political and economic packages. This exercise is of no consequence to us. No doubt we have to seek proper avenues for the redressal of our grievances. as our economic and political rights are severely curtailed but our spirit should be strong and free to enable us to take correct decisions without wilting under pressure.

Possible Responses

1. Any move which does not spell out clearly certain processes to undo the discrimination against this community should treated as self-defeating for any political process.

2. Real face of normalcy is the precondition to any electoral process. Normalcy does not mean mere silencing of guns but perceptible correctness about the governing principles of equality, fraternity, freedom of religion and expression, right to live honorably, equal opportunity, and participation in the socio-economic-political activity by the community.

3. In the absence of normalcy in terrorist infected areas of the State, where dozens & dozens of people get killed daily, the farce of using this community in the communal divide is not acceptable.

4. Normalcy and safety factors are to be determined by this community itself and the road of return to valley is to be visualized by this community. in accordance with its intrinsic status.

5. Any attempt to create superficial conditions for unwanted return of exiled Kashmiri Hindus, being conveniently called "Migrants" by the government, could only mean to live a life like that of Hindus living in Bangla Desh.

6. Any attempt to barter the just and genuine aspirations and demands of this hapless community for the compulsions of powers that be should be out rightly rejected.

7. Kashmiri Hindus should make it amply clear to the national and international community that this community need not require the directives of Governmental agencies to return to the valley. This community itself can decide about the state of normalcy in the valley as it visualised very rightly when it left the valley.

8. This community does not need crutches of power brokers, political leaders, and political expediency to walk back to its home in Kashmir valley; all destroyed, burnt, plundered and occupied by now.

To make this possible, this community has to strive for community consensus on the important issue. Any response of the community, sans the beaten track of shifting stances, catchy slogans, stage-managed gimmickry, opportunism, self glorification, distractions and academic differences, is the only serious answer to our grave problems. It is not as important to vote as to know what for we are voting. It is a sensitive issue. We have to come up with an integrated and collective response.

Courtesy:- S Krishan Kaul and December 1994 Koshur Samachar