Prof Hari Om
On August 17, Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Hirdesh Kumar explained away the ongoing electoral exercise in J&K UT while addressing a press conference in Jammu. He cleared all the cobwebs of confusion, including about the Rohingyas and other illegal aliens residing in Jammu province since 1990s. He made it absolutely clear that no illegal alien will be enlisted as a voter in J&K as those responsible for updating the voters’ lists are fully aware of the issue. At the same time, however, the CEO made a statement of great historical importance. He, inter-alia, announced that “non-locals, including employees, students, labourers or anyone from outside who is living ordinarily in J&K, can enlist his or her name in the voting list, and cast vote in the elections in the Union Territory”. “After the abrogation of Article 370, many people who were not enlisted as voters in the erstwhile State of J&K are now eligible to vote and in addition anyone who is living ordinarily can also avail the opportunity to get enlisted as a voter in J&K in accordance with the provisions of Representation of the People’s Act,” Hirdesh Kumar further said. Not just this, the CEO also declared that “there is no need for a person to have a domicile certificate of J&K to become a voter”. “An employee, a student, a labourer or anyone from outside who is living ordinarily in J&K, can enlist his or her name in the voting list. The documents will be scrutinized by the Government officials concerned who will take a decision after being satisfied about the claim,” he said in this regard. He also added that “like in the past, many residents of J&K who are working in armed forces and paramilitary forces and are posted outside the Union Territory have an option to get themselves registered as service voters and can avail the facility of postal ballot to register their choice at the time of the elections”. He didn’t stop just there. He further said, “Likewise those from different parts of the country who are posted here (read J&K UT) have the option that if they are posted in a peace station they can enlist themselves as voters. Jammu is a peace station and anyone from outside posted in armed forces in the city can avail the option to enlist as a voter”. The CEO also took the opportunity to tell all the concerned that ‘they are expecting around 25 lakh new voters to be enrolled in the Union Territory as the Special Summary Revision of electoral rolls is being held for the first time after abrogation of Article 370 in 2019′. In other words, he said that there would be around one crore fifteen lakh voters, who could vote in the first-ever assembly elections in the J&K UT as and when held. He didn’t hint as to when the elections would be held in J&K. What the CEO said was what has been in vogue in almost all the states and Union Territories, including Delhi and Chandigarh. And, all must welcome what he said and what the concerned laws provide for. It was expected that what the Chief Electoral Officer said in Jammu would rattle the ardent believers in the concepts of theocratic dispensation, separate nationhood, greater autonomy or limited accession to India, self-rule, Indo-Pak joint-control over J&K, demilitarization and porous Line of Control and International Border in Kashmir and it did happen. NC Vice-President former J&K Chief Minister Omar Abdullah, PDP Chief and former Chief Minister, PC president and former minister Sajjad Lone, J&K People’s Democratic Front (JKPDF) chairman and former minister Hakeem Mohd Yaseen, to mention only a few, all in one voice denounced Narendra Modi Government and described the whole exercise dangerous and BJP-centric. Omar Abdullah asserted that the BJP is using the ongoing exercise to improve its poll prospects and that’s the reason that it wanted non-locals to enlist their names in the voters’ lists” and added that voting rights only to the original inhabitants of J&K will mar the poll prospects of the BJP. In fact he tweeted and it read like this, “Is the BJP so insecure about support from genuine voters of J&K that it needs to import temporary voters to win seats? None of these things will help the BJP when the people of J&K are given a chance to exercise their franchise”. Mehbooba Mufti also said almost the same. Accusing the Narendra Modi Government of snatching Article 35A and Article 370 from Kashmiris and reducing J&K to the UT status and describing as anti-democratic and unconstitutional the announcement made by the CEO, she asserted that the voting right to non-locals will only help the BJP and improve its poll prospects, dis-empower Kashmiris and help New Delhi rule J&K by force”. “The BJP is not going to change the country into Hindu Rashtra, but in BJP Rashtra…The way Article 370 was removed unconstitutionally and Indian constitution was subverted, it is all in the interests of BJP as after the decision, the party sold J&K plot in rest of the countries. Similarly, voting rights to the non-locals is aimed at conducting fraud elections to allow the BJP fascist local to rule here,” she, in effect, among other things, said. In addition, she contacted NC president and Gupkar gang chief, Farooq Abdullah, to convene an all-party meeting to decide the future course of action on the issue of giving voting rights to non-J&K residents stating that “it has now gone beyond elections”. Sajad Lone termed as “dangerous” what the CEO said and warned that any failure on the part of New Delhi to appreciate the Kashmiri view would only culminate in Kashmir what the nation witnessed in Kashmir in 1987. (The NC and Congress had rigged wholesale assembly elections in 1987.) What Lone said read like this: “This is dangerous. I don’t know what they (Narendra Modi Government) want to achieve. This is much more than a mischief. Democracy is a relic especially in the context of Kashmir. Please remember 1987. We are yet to come out of that. Don’t replay 1987. It will be disastrous”. As for Hakeem Yaseen, he, among other things, said, “The intention of the government clearly shows the game plan to change the demography of JUK. This conspiracy would be disastrous for the special identity of J&K and would cause more alienation among the people”.
The Resistance Front (TRF), which is responsible for killings of many innocents and attacks on the symbols of Indian State, too, has reacted. It has held a threat through many posters, opposed voting right to all those from different parts of India working in Kashmir and warned that they will not allow the Modi Government to change the Kashmir’s demography and that they will not spare even non-Kashmiri beggars. What does all this show? It shows the contempt for non-Kashmiris living, serving and working in J&K, especially Jammu province, since years. It’s their fundamental right to exercise their franchise in the areas they study, work and serve. It is hoped that the Modi Government will apply the rule of law to J&K UT in its entirety and act like it acted on August 4, 5 and 6, 2019. They just can’t be allowed to insult, abuse and threat the fellow countrymen living in J&K. At the same time, the Modi Government would do well to use what the critics of voting rights to non-Kashmiris as an opportunity to segregate Jammu from Kashmir. It’s a must to break the backbone of separatists and half-separatists in Kashmir.
