The long overdue elections in Jammu and Kashmir are here at last. The Election Commission following the prodding from the apex court has set the time-table for polling on September 18, 25 and October 1. Results are to be declared on October 4. Five years after the virtual neutering of the controversial Article 370, Kashmiris will get a chance to choose their own rulers. The rule by fiat from New Delhi will, hopefully, come to an end. It is to be hoped that insurrectionists who in the past have caused havoc with the spirit of Kashmiriyat would not succeed in hampering the poll process. Political parties and groups in their thrall ought to be careful lest they fritter away the precious chance to restore self-rule in Kashmir. Over the decades, elections in the state have been marred by complaints of widespread rigging and manipulation. No election, to tell the truth, was actually free and fair barring the one in which neither of the two parties conventionally competing with each other in the state won a majority of seats. A new formation representing the aspirations of the local people had won the popular mandate till in one of his major blunders the Rajiv Gandhi government nullified the popular mandate and sought to install a puppet government. That was the beginning of the insurgency in the 80s. Despite successive central governments trying hard to tame jihadis with the saturation deployment of regular troops and para-military forces, Kashmir remained strife-torn and insecure. That denial of a popular mandate won by a hitherto unknown group which was not really hostile towards India fuelled the anti-India campaign, providing the ISI-trained jihadis ready ground to hold the people to ransom. The bifurcation of the state with Ladakh being hived off into a separate administrative unit, and its conversion into a Union Territory, and the delimitation of Assembly seats, with Jammu region getting a few seats more, will come for a popular verdict in the coming poll. Given that the incidents of terror attacks have increased in the Jammu region in recent weeks is an ominous sign. Kashmir has seen much infrastructure development in the last five years under the Governor’s rule. For the first time ever a train link with the Valley has been established, facilitating easier travel from the rest of the country. There are quite a few other measures at “mainstreaming” Kashmir. The outcome of the poll will indicate their success or failure.
Editorial: Long Overdue Kashmir Poll Is Here At Last
