Lessons from this election for KP community

 

India as a country is just witnessing one of the feverish Lok Sabha election extravaganzas ever in its history. The high voltage creative campaigning comprising of festoons, banners quips, puns, abuses, promises, dialogues very obediently and enthusiastically relayed by the social media armies and hosted by a competitive mainstream via live TV broadcasts and healed studio discussions broadsheet colorful coverage and all shades of opinions-all have also held a mirror of what the powerful people think and how issues play or can be manufactured to play in a desired way. Well that's the power of democracy!

Now coming to finding a meaning and residual stuff from this celebratory dividing and uniting electioneering fest is equally important for it offers a summary of not only past appraisal but indications of how the future. will unfurl For the Kashmin Pandit community these elections provide a paradox Electorally very insignificant and perhaps without the right kind of the voting rights but yet in some ways at the centre of these elections even if indirectly via the Kashmir issue, security and nationalism. So, as community an impact analysis on real issues and agenda becomes necessary in this backdrop.

Even if the poll percentage in the Kashmir valley was comparatively lower or more or less the same as in 2014, still It was significant on account of couple of noticeable outcomes. One, this election in a symbolic way depicted return of some basic normalcy to pre-2016 times and also remained incident free Holding polling for the Anantnag parliamentary seat in itself is a big achievement given a few of its militancy-infested areas had thrown so much challenge to the security establishment in the past three years that it had added to a new dimension to militancy discourse.

While this is a good starting sign for return of normalcy and democratic process in the valley at the same time, the changing contours of mainstream politics are just the opposite-a beginning for a commencement of dangerous agenda path. The contentious Articles 370 and 35A have been in focus always during elections but never was this focus so dominating and threatening as this time in Kashmir. The whole political discourse of mainstream regional parties was around safeguarding these constitutional provisions that give special status to the state of Jammu & Kashmir.

Pending petitions on 35A in courts and a belligerent move by the BJP to make it part of greater national security poll plank by first including its revocation pointedly in its manifesto and then a 'dateline by BJP president at a rally in Jammu, sent Kashmir politicians in tizzy and the political story in Kashmir is the threat of abrogation is real. On expected lines, it evoked sharpest reactions and election pitch So this is potentially a restive issue, which cans flare up passions, protests and strife unless any tinkering is not consultative, adaptive and accommodative in an atmosphere of trust.

Similarly, in Jammu the scene is changing Until this election, the political fight in the Jammu province used to be routinely for the supremacy between the two main rival national political parties Congress and the BJP But nov the identity political discourse has entered into Jammu politics as well and is gradually occupying a space in the mindscape of the people here. With the newly established Dogra Swabhimaan Sangathan (DSS) by Choudhay Lal Singh entering into the electoral fray in the Dogra majority areas of the state, a paradigm shift in J & K state's political history has subtly happened. The firebrand politician that is Lal Singh is, he used these elections to criss-cross the Duggar land and fan out the message of discrimination and dilution of entitlements besides instilling the Dogra pride in the Dogra people. Lal Singh, who has been in the past Member of Parliament, state cabinet minister and legislator was originally a Congressman but crossed over to BJP just before the 2014 elections. His sacking from the state cabinet, after he participated in Hindu Ekta Manch rally organized in support of those arrested in the infamous Rassana (Kathua) rape and murder case of 8-year old Bakerwal girl, Asifa, became basis for his angst and he extracted revenge in his own way by fanning out regional identity based politics.

One interesting plank of DSS has been Hindu-Muslim unity for those who share common Dogra culture and identity. In other words, the party is utang Dogra-Kashmir fault line to advance its political agenda. Even a slight measure of success in terms of respectable vote share will herald a new political agency and demand for a separate Jammu state Seen in the backdrop of volatility of the situation in Kashmir, a separate state for Jammu may well even suit the government in New Delhi And it has a repercussion for KPs as they would be perennial guests.

Now with respect to national scene this election has seen a further decline in the number of Muslims being fielded to contest and thus entering into Parliament. This may well genuinely and otherwise organise this largest minority community into sulking and perhaps also into a deprived collective On the hindsight it may also manifest into polarising and divisive narrative getting more followers. And the victim narrative will always be felt in Kashmir in popular discourse.

Another reality of this election has been the caste politics being the overwhelming factor in selection and perhaps win-ability of candidates as in the past. This election may have been about Modi, nationalism and new India, but the subtext has always been the social alignments and equations. And for the time being it can be assumed win ability in election is in practice is proportional to vote banks So, vote banks are important, here to stay however small these may be. Therefore, the KP community need not wander in idealism but create and safeguard its small vote bank for real polity.

Kashmir Pandits have come a long way from their roots and land, they are almost everywhere in the country and abroad but in tiny numbers. When the question of exercising franchise arises, the existential dilemma for a KP doesn't offer a simple choice. With voter-ID almost becoming a basic identity cum residential document of evidence for every citizen to avail government and other services, a KP despite not wanting to lose his original identity and address, has no choice but to register from the place of his stay for citizen services. And in the process, therefore, gets customised to the localised election process But for a few thousands, even those, who are temporarily residing in Jammu, got themselves registered locally in the past. It is only due to efforts of some political workers in the last few years that enrollment effort for migrants in Kashmir picked up to some extent but the ambiguity still remains and the task is far from being finished.

With every election in Kashmir the issue of M-forms for migrant voters also makes an appearance on discussion circuits and most people consider this lardy process as a barrier to participation Actually this scheme has a background. As per the amended J & K Representation of People Act 1957 and Jammu Kashmir conduct of Election Rules 1965, there is provision for inclusion and retention of vote at place of permanent residence and after bulk of the KP population had to abandon their homes and take up shelter temporarily in Jammu and different parts of the country due to terror the migrant postal ballot scheme was Introduced to protect their night of franchise.

While this scheme has been robust in constitutionality, its logic has disappeared with time. The migration has turned 29 years in 2019. The individual and families, who suffered loss of home and accompanying ecosystem for better part of this penod led lives of refugees bearing all kinds of hardships and struggles of life. To earn livelihood, and carry on with the routine of daily life, they circumstantially preferred enrolling locally more for that piece of important document without which living or proving self as a citizen is impossible, than a preference for their original place of belonging. In the end, this scheme is also a bureaucratic procedure and, therefore, people tend to keep off it.

Now if this progressive disfranchisement has taken place and the number of migrant voters reflect poorly, it is more to blame on the state than individuals. Imagine all sorts of records from census to revenue and voter data is with the state. It has a well-oiled machinery and now, of course, technology to produce migrant records on its own. The state could well have automated voter lists in respect of migrants and only kept a formality for these families to add members who became adults or inclusion of new married women. For marking absence some kind of asterisks could have been used but the data should have been kept in the pink of health.

The union government should also have taken a cognizance and devised a scheme whereby the dual address system specially for this category of electorate could have been permitted to enable them to preserve their original identity and franchisee and at the same time get empowered as a normal citizen at the place of current stay. When you are dealing with such a sensitive national issue. you also need to display frameworks that protect your nationalist citizen capital.

As probably no one in the government thought on these lines, it is therefore, now responsibility of the community collective and whatever organisational capability it has to study the issue and take help of constitutional experts to prepare this framework, which can be then introduced as a private member bill or administratively. A similar initiative is required to consolidate land holdings and extend a protection to them. 

The collective bargain and power of the community has to be retained both to help the country as well as for the existence of community itself. So the community needs to build VITASTA SANGEET KALA KENDRA organisational capability forthwith Instead of presenting itself as a divided house and a bazaar of self-styled leaders, the community should together) the community but offers everybody an opportunity to engage Such a platform must create trust, goodwill and hope among the community It should be programmed to attain sustainability, stature and structure so that it becomes the best buddy and an all-weather friend to the community, orphaned, uprooted and wandering.

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The views expressed in the Article above are Avtar Nehru  personal views and kashmiribhatta.in is not in any way responsible for the opinions expressed in the above article. The article belongs to its respective owner or owners and this site does not claim any right over it. Copyright Disclaimer under section 107 of the Copyright Act of 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, education, and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing."

Courtesy:-  Avtar Nehru  and  Koshur Samachar 2019, May