Kashmir will be able to have a regional legislature with limited powers and its own short-lived administration thanks to the multistage election, the last round of which takes place on Tuesday.
A significant opposition figure claims that the regional elections to select a local administration in India-administered Kashmir, which are scheduled for this coming weekend, will not end the long-standing disagreement that lies at the core of the conflict between New Delhi and Pakistan.
The elections, according to Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, who has been detained in his home for the majority of the last five years, are taking place while political voices challenging India’s sovereignty over the region continue to be muffled. In 2019, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu nationalist government removed the region’s long-standing semi-autonomy.
In a phone interview with The Associated Press, the jailed leader stated that there is no other way to settle the conflict than through the election, which the Modi administration has hailed as a “festival of democracy” in the area.
“These elections cannot be the means to address the larger Kashmir issue,” declared Mirwaiz, a well-known Muslim cleric and the guardian of the big mosque in Srinagar, the region’s capital and the epicenter of anti-India feeling, which is six centuries old.
This is the first vote of this kind in ten years, and the first since New Delhi demoted and split the previous state into two union territories that are governed centrally, Ladakh and Jammu and Kashmir, both of which are directly under the control of unelected bureaucrats in New Delhi.
After more than 30 years of conflict, the authorities claim that the election will restore democracy to the area, but many residents view it as a chance to register their opposition to the 2019 changes that they believe will dilute the region’s demographics in addition to choosing their own representatives.
According to Mirwaiz, the crackdown by India in the wake of the 2019 move “has silenced people” in the region who “feel dispossessed and disempowered.”
“There is a strong, latent public resistance to all of this, even though you may not see active turmoil like you did before 2019,” he stated. “We have been forced to remain silent, but that does not mean that we agree.”
Most Kashmiris saw India’s abrupt action as an attack on their identity and autonomy, despite the fact that it resonated well with Modi supporters and the Indian public overall.
Authorities jailed Mirwaiz and thousands of other political activists, including pro-India leaders in Kashmir who opposed India’s decision, out of fear of unrest. This occurred in the midst of an extraordinary security crackdown and a complete communication blackout in the area.
Since then, the area has been tense, with media silence and restrictions on civil liberties.
The All Parties Hurriyat Conference, led by Mirwaiz, is a broad coalition that supports the region’s right to self-determination, which is split between Pakistan and India.
As per Mirwaiz’s statement, the crackdown has limited his group’s ability to interact with people and has reduced its previous “space and scope for proactive involvement.”
“The Hurriyat’s organizational strength has been significantly weakened by the massive assault, but its resolve has not been affected,” he stated.
Two of the three wars between India and Pakistan have been fought over Kashmir, and both nations hold portions of the Himalayan region that are split by a heavily fortified border.
Kashmir was offered the option to join either India or Pakistan in a United Nations referendum held a year after their first conflict in 1947, but it was never carried out. In return for accepting Indian sovereignty, the region of Kashmir under Indian control was given unique rights and a degree of autonomy.
However, as successive Indian governments attempted to erode that agreement, Kashmiri dissatisfaction with India eventually gained traction. Local governments were overthrown, and mostly nonviolent anti-Indian protests faced severe repression.
An armed uprising and public outcry followed an election that was widely suspected of being rigged in the mid-1980s. Since then, insurgents have been fighting for a unified Kashmir under Pakistani administration or independent of both in the area under Indian control.
They also didn’t abstain from the most recent general election in India. Rather, a few lower-level activists who previously disregarded voting as illegal while under military rule are contesting as independent candidates.
“A democratic way to express anger, reject this projection, and bring attention to the unresolved issue (of Kashmir) is through boycotts,” Mirwaiz stated. However, the people of India are now “powerless and disempowered” as a result of the crackdown, and a “poll boycott cannot work anymore” in this situation.
Although Mirwaiz has disassociated himself from the election, he said that prior to its September 18 start date, it was rigged in support of Modi’s Hindu nationalist agenda.
