[India ruling party worked to
make Kashmir’s rural development council elections a showcase. But a visit by
Times reporters showed a place still struggling under heavy-handed rule.]
“The voting shows democracy being
alive at the grass roots,” the region’s top civil servant, B.V.R. Subrahmanyam,
told a group of reporters. “People taking value of their own lives is visible,
palpable.”
The election — a vote to choose
rural development officials — was called suddenly, giving parties only a week
to register candidates before the first round of the eight-phase polling began
in November, political leaders said. Many prominent Kashmiri politicians and
public figures remain in detention with no recourse, or under threat. And
hundreds of thousands of political workers for India’s Hindu-nationalist ruling
party, the Bharatiya Janata Party, traveled through the region carrying banners
and signs, hoping to make a strong showing in a mostly Muslim territory where
it has traditionally been loathed.
The party, known as the B.J.P., did
appear to make some inroads, winning at least three seats and leading in
several dozen races in the 280-seat District Development Council. But some of
the voter engagement appeared to stem more from defiance than satisfaction.
“We’d never want B.J.P. to be in
power in Kashmir,” said Kulsoom Chopan, 21, who warmed her hands over a wicker
fire pot while waiting to vote at a public boys’ high school in Bandipora, a
northern district hemmed in by the Himalayas and Asia’s second-largest
freshwater lake. “We would never vote for India.”
The New York Times was part of a
small group of international media outlets permitted to visit Kashmir on a
tightly controlled, government-organized trip to cover the polls.
This relatively small-stakes
election was the first time India has allowed foreign reporters into Jammu and
Kashmir since August 2019, when Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government revoked the
constitutional provision that gave the region some political autonomy.
Jammu and Kashmir, which used to be India’s only Muslim-predominant state, is
now a federal territory ruled directly by the Indian government.
Mr. Modi said at the time that
Kashmir’s special status had helped fuel a 30-year-old armed separatist struggle
that resulted in tens of thousands of deaths of security forces, rebels and
civilians, and was an impediment to outside investors.
However, just as the security
clampdown eased, the pandemic hit. Kashmir’s tourism-reliant economy and civil
society are now on the verge of collapse: In a year and a half, there’s
been no new private investment in Kashmir, and
police officials say that recruitment by militant groups is on the rise.
Activists say hundreds of people,
including separatists, political moderates, civil society advocates and
journalists remain in jail after they were swept up last year. Accusations
of torture by security forces were widespread.
In this climate of fear and
uncertainty, the B.J.P. has made a big push into the Kashmir Valley, the center
of the separatist struggle, unleashing 300,000 party workers and bringing
Muslim politicians in Kashmir into its fold for the first time.
“We’re only in the takeoff stage,”
said Ghulam Mohammad Mir, B.J.P.’s Kashmir spokesman and a candidate for the
development council elections in the valley’s Kupwara district.
“We have thousands in election
areas in every nook and corner of the valley, open, with flags,” he said.
Seven B.J.P. party workers have
been killed in 2020, and a candidate affiliated with the party was shot and
injured in November by militants, according to the Jammu and Kashmir police.
In the days before the Indian
government unilaterally stripped Kashmir’s autonomy, Mr. Modi
sent in thousands of army troops to quell anticipated unrest.
Prominent Kashmiri politicians,
including former chief ministers of Kashmir, some of their relatives and other
opposition party leaders, were arrested and detained in government houses for
months. Cellphone and internet access were blocked.
A dozen petitions challenging the
constitutionality of the move remain pending with India’s Supreme Court.
Among those detained were Mehbooba
Mufti, the head of a powerful regional party, and Farooq and Omar Abdullah, the
father and son who led another influential bloc. They have since been released,
but when contacted by The Times, they said they were unable to grant
interviews. On Saturday, it was announced that the Indian government was
investigating Farooq Abdullah on money-laundering charges.
Despite the pressure, Waheed ur
Rehman Para, a youth leader of Ms. Mufti’s party, trounced his B.J.P.
competitor in the restive southern district of Pulwama from a jail cell in
Jammu, where he is being held under accusation of being linked to militants. He
and his family deny the accusation.
Mohamed Bhat ran as an independent
candidate in Bandipora as part of the Gukpar Alliance, a coalition of
opposition parties led by Farooq Abdullah promising to restore Kashmir’s
autonomy.
“There was democracy in Kashmir
previously, but with abrogation it was trampled upon,” Mr. Bhat said, speaking
of the constitutional provision that was scrapped. “We have united to bring
back the special status,” he said.
Hasnain Masoodi, a member of Indian
Parliament from Mr. Abdullah’s party, complained about the haste with which the
central government unilaterally decided to hold the development council
elections.
“We were not given a level playing
field,” he said. “There was no campaign at all. Most of the time we were either
denied permission or senior leaders were confined.”
Mr. Masoodi, who earlier served as
chief justice of Jammu and Kashmir before joining Mr. Abdullah’s
party, said the coalition partners weren’t able to vet candidates, but fielded
them anyway to avoid leaving the field open for the B.J.P.
“They made it into a referendum” on
the change to Kashmir’s political status, he said of the B.J.P.
Dilbag Singh, the top Indian police
officer in the region, denied that opposition parties were refused permission
for campaign events. He also denied accusations that police had tortured
people.
Mr. Singh said that of the hundreds
of people detained in August 2019, only 155 remained in custody in Kashmir and
other jails around India.
“Today we have shown restraint. Not
a single bullet has been fired, no civilian has been killed,” Mr. Singh said.
“That’s a fact — let them prove it otherwise.”
Showkat Nanda contributed reporting
from Srinagar, and Sameer Yasir from New Delhi.
