I have been observing elections in Jammu and Kashmir for the last 40 years. For the first time, on Tuesday, I watched voters beating drums outside polling booths and dancing to drumbeats. Such a scene was never witnessed in Jammu and Kashmir in the past, during polling. Those celebrating the festival of democracy are termed by officials as ‘West Pakistani Refugees’. They got their voting rights for the first time in 75 years, after the abrogation of Article 370 in 2019. West Pakistani Refugees, Valmiki Samaj and Gorkha community people were never given rights in the past to vote for Assembly or Parliamentary elections. They were entitled to vote only for Block Development Council and District Development Council elections. I remember, seven years ago in 2017, Dr Farooq Abdullah was contesting Lok Sabha elections from Srinagar. There were 12,61,315 names in the voters’ list, but only seven per cent voters reached the polling booths. Dr Farooq Abdullah got only about 48,000 votes and won. Contrast this with the polling figures on Tuesday, when Jammu and Kashmir recorded 65.65 per cent voting in the third phase. This itself is indicative of a sea change that has come in Kashmir politics.
During Partition, 75 years ago, those who had to leave their homes in West Pakistan and Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir, and settle in Jammu and Kashmir, had to live as refugees in their own homeland, devoid of the right to cast their vote. For 75 years, there were being addressed as ‘Pakistani’. But these were people who had crossed over in 1947, when India was undivided before Partition. Nearly 22 thousand families had to live in their own homeland as ‘refugees’ for 75 years. More than three to four generations died without realizing their dream to be called a ‘Bharatiya’ or a ‘Kashmiri’ one day.
On Tuesday, they looked ecstatic, having their fingers inked by polling officers before casting their precious vote. The tears of happiness on the faces of women cannot be described in words. These are people who realize the true meaning of the abrogation of Article 370. We can only realize their level of happiness, but cannot gauge the magnitude of their pain. They had to bear the cross of ‘Article 370’ for 75 years. On Tuesday, there was hundred per cent polling among these families. They were openly saying they would vote for Modi, because the Prime Minister gave them their voting right. They are unhappy with National Conference which has promised to bring back Article 370 in its manifesto. Congress is in electoral alliance with the National Conference in this election. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, on Tuesday, rubbed wounds into the opposition, by telling an election rally in Haryana that Congress leaders have never spoken about reoccupying Pak Occupied Kashmir, even till this date.
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