Important takeaways from DDC elections in J&K

Varad Sharma  

The DDC election in Jammu & Kashmir was a victory for India’s democratic ideals and the results hold some key lessons for the participating parties. BJP gaining ground as the single-largest party has shown the PAGD that the Valley wants a fresher alternative, while the paltry share of Congress is an indication of its declining significance in J&K’s politics.

Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) has been undergoing dynamic shifts under the Narendra Modi-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government since 5 August 2019. The abrogation of Article 370, spinning off Ladakh from the erstwhile state of J&K, and downgrading it into a Union Territory have drawn the ire of several political parties as well as the commentariat. The abrogation was supplemented by several months of communication lockdown which has been more or less removed—only 4G internet remains banned across the Union Territory, except for the districts of Udhampur in Jammu region and Ganderbal in Kashmir region. All these measures have been taken into consideration from a security point of view as per the J&K administration headed by Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha.

The new order, after the revocation of Article 370, has been steadily taking shape in J&K with renewed political manoeuvring both from the pro-Article 370 and anti-Article 370 sides. However, the new order’s normalisation would be incomplete without the tough test of democracy, i.e., the elections.

A beginning has been made with the District Development Council (DDC) elections which are aimed at strengthening the grassroots democracy in the Union Territory. Earlier, in October, the Union government had amended the J&K Panchayati Raj Act, 1989 for the establishment of a three-tier power structure in J&K—panchayat, block and district level. It is pertinent to note that the three-tier system didn’t exist in the pre-Article 370 era, reflecting that there had been no focus on making democracy stronger at the local level.

The DDC elections were fought in eight phases across J&K from November 28 to December 19. The polls recorded moderate voting with around 51% overall voter turnout. The elections were largely a direct fight between India’s ruling party, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), and the People’s Alliance for Gupkar Declaration (PAGD), which is a conglomerate of Kashmir-centric parties including National Conference (NC), Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP), Communist Party of India—Marxist (CPI-M), Jammu and Kashmir People’s Conference (JKPC), Jammu Kashmir People’s Movement (JKPM), and Awami National Conference (ANC). Indian National Congress (INC), though aligning with the politics of the PAGD, maintained a safe distance from the alliance.

While both the BJP and PAGD claimed victories in the DDC elections, the final numbers garnered by both sides are majorly region specific with BJP maintaining its position in Jammu and PAGD making every effort to stop BJP from making inroads in Kashmir.

Out of 280 seats (14 seats each in 20 districts), BJP got 75 seats in the polls and emerged as the single largest party, while PAGD secured 110 seats (NC – 67, PDP – 27, JKPC – 8, CPI-M – 5, JKPM – 3). Notably, the INC managed to get only 26 seats and the recently-formed J&K Apni Party (JKAP) made its presence felt by winning 12 seats.

 

It is the might of the BJP as a political entity as well as an election-winning machine which led to arch-rivals NC and PDP coming together along with other Kashmir-centric political parties. The BJP emerging as the single largest party in the J&K elections is a testimony to its force as a political party attempting to offer a fresh alternative to the people who have become weary of old deceitful politics in J&K. BJP is no longer a political untouchable in Kashmir as it got one seat each in North (Tulail seat in Bandipur district), Central (Khonmoh-II seat in Srinagar district), and South (Kakapora-II seat in Pulwama district) Kashmir. From an untouchable to a newcomer in Kashmir, the journey has been very long for the BJP. But that distance has been covered and the party’s grassroots campaign has produced some effect, although it is still very minimal: The BJP got a total of 4.87 lakh votes in J&K while the PAGD gathered 3.94 lakh votes.

The BJP’s road ahead in J&K will only be tougher as only development doesn’t sell in J&K due to ideological positions interfering at the ground level. Selling nationalism in a region which has been marred with Islamist separatism and terrorism for over three decades (with support from certain sections of the population) is very difficult—something which the BJP must reflect on as a newcomer attempting to make further forays in the Valley. Whether the BJP softens its stance on nationalism, as had been the case when it allied with the PDP for forming the government in the erstwhile state, or not, it has to be seen in the Assembly elections, whenever that happens in J&K.

Empowering local governance and solidifying democracy at the ground level in terror-affected regions of J&K is an uphill task—but the Modi government has done fairly well on that. While all sorts of accusations have been levelled against the current regime, especially by the PAGD and their kowtowing commentariat, it is the Modi government which has made efforts to ensure democracy in J&K.

One must recall that the panchayat and urban local bodies (ULBs) elections in 2018 were openly boycotted by Kashmir’s mainstream political parties, NC and PDP. Both the parties had decided to stay away from the polls as long as the Government of India did not clear its position on Article 370 and Article 35-A. At that time, NC chief Farooq Abdullah had threatened to boycott Parliamentary and Assembly elections too.

The PAGD claiming the poll results as a referendum on Article 370 would be immature and pure rhetoric. If we go by pure numbers, the alliance won only 110 seats while it lost 170 seats. Statistically speaking, that is nowhere near even half in the elections. Had there been support, cutting across regions and communities, for Article 370, the PAGD would have easily crossed the half-way mark. Likewise, the BJP asserting that the people have accepted the constitutional changes in J&K wholeheartedly is naive. It is rather a mixed bag of people’s choices and alignments with no clear signal.  

Congress getting a significantly smaller number of seats than independents (who got 50 seats) indicates their declining position in J&K’s politics. Once an important player, and one which remained in power too, their presence has been drastically reduced in the DDC elections. The grand old party’s performance in J&K is similar to what has been mostly the case in the rest of India. Interestingly, NC secured only one seat in its traditional base, Srinagar, out of the total 14 seats.

The DDC elections should have been fought more on development planks instead of ideological stances. However, the underlying premise for PAGD’s existence as well as fighting the election was the restoring of the special status of J&K and reversal of the constitutional changes made to J&K on 5 August last year. Importantly, PAGD is a hotchpotch of bitter rivals united by the common thread of maintaining the Muslim majoritarian setup in J&K. That story, however, is for another day.

In spite of too much clamour over the removal of special status and statehood of J&K, all mainstream parties (including NC and PDP) participated in the democratic exercise under the post-Article 370 order. From the earlier threats to boycott participation in the polls, this is certainly a welcome step. Boycotting a democratic process would have raised a question mark over parties like NC and PDP, thereby furthering their own irrelevance in J&K’s politics.

The DDC elections were largely peaceful with only stray incidents of violence. Both the Election Commission as well as the J&K administration deserve credit for ensuring free and fair elections in the Union Territory. Every democratic exercise in J&K is a victory for India at an international level against Pakistan’s propaganda and exposes its false claims of India subjugating Kashmiris. Now that a democratic exercise has been completed in J&K, its implementation and subsequent ground work should commence without any delay.

Varad Sharma is a writer and political commentator. He is the co-editor of a book on Kashmir’s ethnic minority community titled, ‘A Long Dream of Home: The Persecution, Exodus and Exile of Kashmiri Pandits’, published by Bloomsbury India.  

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Courtesy: Varad Sharma  and The Daily Guardian: 7th January, 2021