Journalism of Courage
Jammu Deputy Commissioner and District Election Officer Avny Lavasa’s decision, taken late Wednesday night, to withdraw her order authorising tehsildars in the district to issue a certificate of residence came after non-BJP parties labelled it an attempt to extend voting rights to non-locals. For the past month, these Opposition parties have been raising their voice against what they allege is a strategy to pave the path for BJP’s rise to power in Jammu and Kashmir.
Last week, the Kashmir-dominated People’s Alliance for Gupkar Declaration (PAGD) set up a 14-member committee with the objective of preventing the alleged attempt to register “non-locals” as voters during the special summary revision of electoral rolls for Assembly constituencies. To make its approach broad-based, the PAGD also included in the committee leaders of other political parties from the Jammu division.
The PAGD is headed by National Conference (NC) president and former chief minister Dr Farooq Abdullah and consists of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), the Awami National Conference, the CPI(M), and the CPI. All these parties have their main base in Kashmir. The main agenda of the group is to fight for the restoration of Articles 370 and 35A, besides statehood for J&K.
Those in the PAGD committee include Justice (retired) Hasnain Masoodi, NC’s Jammu division president and MP Rattan Lal Gupta, PDP’s Mehbooba Beg and A S Reen, GM Mizrab from the CPI and Hari Singh of the CPI(M), J&K Congress working president Raman Bhalla, former minister and Dogra Swabhiman Sangathan president Chowdhary Lal Singh, former minister and Dogra Sadar Sabha president Thakur Gulchain Singh Charak, the Shiv Sena’s J&K president Manish Sawhney, International Democratic Party president ID Khajuria, and J&K People’s Movement leader M Hussain. Justice Masoodi will be the convener of the panel.
Announcing the formation of the panel on October 8, CPI(M) leader and former MLA MY Tarigami told media persons that it was set up as per a decision taken at a meeting chaired by Farooq Abdullah in Jammu last month to chalk out a strategy to prevent any attempt to manipulate the electoral rolls and include “non-locals” in the revised rolls.
The PAGD and others came together on the matter after then J&K Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Hirdesh Kumar announced on August 17 that around 25 lakh new voters were expected to be enrolled in the Union Territory (UT) during the special summary revision of electoral rolls. He added that the new voters would include those “ordinarily” residing in J&K and at least 18 years old as on October 1. This led to an uproar, with mainstream Opposition parties in Kashmir alleging that the objective was facilitating the BJP’s rise to power.
In response, the UT administration clarified that a large number of new voters would be local youth who turned 18 years after 2019, besides others whose names were in the electoral rolls for the 2019 Lok Sabha elections but were not eligible to vote in Assembly elections because of Article 370. Among such people are refugees from Pakistan, Gorkhas, and Valmikis who are eligible to vote in the Assembly elections following the abrogation of Article 370.
PAGD unmoved
But there seem to be no takers for the official clarification in the mainstream Opposition parties, especially the NC and the PDP. “Prior to August 5, 2019, the then Governor Satya Pal Malik had categorically told us that nothing will happen to Article 370,” Abdullah said on Saturday.
He added, “The prime minister chaired an all-party meeting in June last year saying that Dilli ki doori (distance from Delhi), as well as dil ki doori (the chasm between hearts), will be bridged and prisoners released. Tell me about anyone who has been released.” The NC leader said the government was implementing new laws every day, giving rise to a feeling that the rights of the people of J&K are under attack. “We are here to counter that attack.”
According to political observers, the decision to have Jammu-based politicians also on board appears to have followed from PAGD leaders’ realisation that they would not be taken seriously by Delhi in the absence of any support from Jammu. In the 2014 Assembly elections, the BJP came to power in alliance with the PDP after receiving massive public support in Hindu-dominated areas. The political contours further changed after August 5, 2019, when the Centre moved to abrogate Article 370 and split the then J&K state into the Union Territories of J&K and Ladakh.
The PAGD leaders, according to observers, have now concluded that the path to power in the UT goes through Jammu as Kashmir is likely to throw up a hung verdict because of the saturated political space. Making things for the PAGD, its leaders, most of whom are from Kashmir, have failed to evoke much response from the Jammu-based parties. A number of those supporting the PAGD in its fight against the inclusion of non-locals as voters lost during the recently held urban and rural local body elections.
Former Jammu University professor Hari Om criticised the PAGD panel, saying it shows that even after the changes brought forth in August 2019. there were still “elements in the Jammu division who, for vested political interests, want to keep Jammu and Kashmir away from India”.
