Unsolved Kashmir,,,,,,,,,

Introduction

Kashmir is known as a paradise of earth. According to legend, Jammu was founded by Raja Jamboolochan in the 14th century BCE. During one of his hunting campaigns he reached the Tawi River where he saw a goat and a lion drinking water at the same place. The king was impressed and decided to set up a town after his name, Jamboo. With the passage of time, the name was corrupted and became “Jammu”.

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In the 14th century, Islam gradually became the dominant religion in Kashmir, starting with the conversion in 1323 of Rincana, the first king of a new dynasty from Ladakh. The Muslims and Hindus of Kashmir lived in relative harmony, since the Sufi-Islamic way of life that ordinary Muslims followed in Kashmir complemented the Rishi tradition of Kashmiri Pandit’s. This led to a syncretism culture where Hindus and Muslims revered the same local saints and prayed at the same shrines. By the early 19th century, the Kashmir valley had passed from the control of the Durrani Empire of Afghanistan and four centuries of Muslim rule under the Mughals and the Afghans, to the conquering Sikh armies. Earlier, in 1780, after the death of Ranjit Doe, the Raja of Jammu, the kingdom of Jammu to the south of the Kashmir valley, was captured by the Sikhs under Ranjit Singh of Lahore and afterwards, until 1846, became a tributary to the Sikh power. Ranjit Doe’s grandnephew, Gulab Singh, subsequently sought service at the court of Ranjit Singh; distinguished himself in later campaigns, especially the annexation of the Kashmir valley by the Sikhs army in 1819, and, for his services, was created Raja of Jammu in 1820. With the help of his officer, Zorawar Singh, Gulab Singh soon captured Ladakh and Baltistan, regions to the east and north-east of Jammu.

In the first half of the first millennium, Kashmir became an important center of Hinduism and later of Buddhism; later still, in the ninth century, Kashmir Shaves’ arose in the region.[2] In 1349, Shah Mir became the first Muslim ruler of Kashmir and inaugurated the line Salatin-i-Kashmir.[3] For the next five centuries Kashmir had Muslim monarchs, including the Mughals, who ruled until 1751, and thereafter, the Afghan Durranis, who ruled until 1820. That year, the Sikhs under Ranjit Singh, annexed Kashmir. In 1846, upon the purchase of the region from the British under the Treaty of Amritsar, the Dogras—under Gulab Singh—became the new rulers. Dogra Rule, under the paramountcy of the British Crown, lasted until 1947, when the former princely state became a disputed territory.

Now administered by three countries: India, Pakistan, and the People's Republic of China. The region is divided among three countries in a territorial dispute: Pakistan controls the northwest portion (Northern Areas and Azad Kashmir), India controls the central and southern portion and Ladakh, and China controls the northeastern portion (Aksai Chin and the Trans-Karakoram India controls the majority of the Siachen Glacier area including the Saltoro Ridge passes, whereas Pakistan controls the lower territory just southwest of the Saltoro Ridge. India controls 141,338 km2 of the disputed territory, Pakistan 85,846 km2 and China, the remaining 37,555 km2. Jammu and Azad Kashmir lie outside Pir Panjal range, and are under Indian and Pakistani control respectively. These are populous regions. Main cities are Jammu, Muzaffarabad and Rawalakot.

The Northern Areas are a group of territories in the extreme north, bordered by the Karakoram, the western Himalayas, the Pamir, and the Hindu Kush ranges. With its administrative center at the town of Gilgit, the Northern cover an area of 72,971 km² and have an estimated population approaching 1,000,000. The other main city is Skardu.

Ladakh is a region in the east, between the Kunlun mountain range in the north and the main Great Himalayas to the south. Main cities are Leh and Kargil. It is under Indian administration and is part of the state of Jammu and Kashmir. It is one of the most sparsely populated regions in the area and is mainly inhabited by people of Indo-Aryan and Tibetan descent. Aksai Chin is a vast high-altitude desert of salt that reaches altitudes up to 5,000 meters. Geographically part of the Tibetan Plateau, Aksai Chin is referred to as the Soda Plain. The region is almost uninhabited, and has no permanent settlements. Though these regions are in practice administered by their respective claimants, neither India nor Pakistan has formally recognized the accession of the areas claimed by the other. India claims those areas, including the area "ceded" to China by Pakistan in the Trans-Karakoram Tract in 1963, are a part of its territory, while Pakistan claims the entire region excluding Aksai Chin and Trans-Karakoram Tract.

History of Jammu & Kashmir Politics:-

The history of elections held in Jammu & Kashmir right from October 1951 to 2008 is full of recorded evidence that points out large scale state supported rigging, coercion and out-right brutality in the early years and use of gun point to drag the helpless Kashmiris out of their homes to cast vote, in the later years. The Central Congress Government controlled the ruling parties in the State (National Conference from 1953-1965 and the Congress Party from 1965-1975, with its handpicked nominees running the government. The top opposition stalwarts like Maulvi Mohammad Yusuf Shah and Ghulam Abbas had fled to the other side of the border in 1947. The Plebiscite Front had boycotted the path of elections and was demanding self-determination. This enabled the ruling National Conference to perpetuate its monopoly over state power.

Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah was installed by India as the Prime Minister of the State in March 1948 to rule the state along with Council of Ministers. In Kashmir, Chief Minister was called Prime Minister until 1965. In October 1949, the Indian Constituent Assembly adopted Article 370 of the Constitution, ensuring a degree of autonomy and special status for Jammu and Kashmir.

India held the first election in Kashmir in October 1951 to elect the Constituent Assembly. It is important to note that the UN made it clear that this election is not a substitute for a plebiscite. The state of Jammu and Kashmir has historically consisted of four political regions.

Ladakh towards the east bordering China, Jammu towards the south bordering India and Pakistan, Kashmir Valley towards the east bordering Pakistan and Baltistan areas towards the North bordering China and Pakistan. Baltistan and a part of Kashmir Valley are under Pakistan control. Aksai Chin, claimed by India to be a part of Ladakh, is under Chinese control. While the rest is under Indian control. Pakistan and Indian controlled parts are separated by Line of Control.

Like all the states of India, Indian controlled parts of Jammu and Kashmir have a multi-party democratic system of governance. Main political parties include the Jammu & Kashmir National Conference, the Indian National Congress and the Jammu and Kashmir People's Democratic Party (PDP). Presently, the National Conference and Indian National Congress make up the majority in the state legislature, with 28 and 17 seats respectively in the 87-member house. Omar Abdullah (NC) is expected to be sworn in the CM on January 5 with a Congress deputy-CM.

The Constitution of India grants Jammu and Kashmir special autonomous status as a temporary provision through Article 370. However, some Muslim Kashmir is demand greater autonomy and sovereignty and some even demand independence from India, while some non-Muslims would like to see the state fully integrated into India. A part of Kashmiri Muslims also have inclination towards Pakistan since a large part of Kashmir is under Pakistan Control. There have also been a number of separatist movements, political and militant, mostly lead by hard-line Muslim leaders. However, in recent years Kashmiri Muslims have been leaning towards being- in India due to economic reasons. Jammu and Kashmir is the only Indian state that has its own flag. Designed by the Government of-India, the state flag of Jammu and Kashmir is the native plough on a red background which is a symbol of labour. The three stripes represent the three administrative divisions of the state, namely Jammu, Valley of Kashmir, and Ladakh.

In the very first state assembly elections, held in 1951, the National Conference, under the leadership of Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah, won all 75 seats of the Constituent Assembly without any contest as the authorities rejected the nomination papers of the major opposition party Praia Parishad on frivolous grounds, and the independent contestants dropped out at the last moment. In the second elections, held in 1957, the NC secured 68 seats, of which 43 were unopposed, while in 1962, NC candidates ran for 41 seats in the valley and were returned unopposed to 34. In 1967, the Indian National Congress secured 57 seats, of which 22 were returned unopposed.

On the three occasions – 1951, 1957, 1962 – the government machinery was completely and unhesitatingly used in support of the ruling party; opponents were disqualified on flimsy and frivolous grounds; the few dauntless candidates dared to stand for the contest were mercilessly beaten or kidnapped; Peace Brigade men were employed to intimidate voters; and when even strong arm methods failed, the ballot boxes were tampered with enabling polling officers to declare the victory of the National Conference party men. The elections of 1962 were so thoroughly rigged, in fact, that Jawaharlal Nehru, then Indian premier, was constrained to point out to G. M. Bakshi, the leader of NC at that- time (as Sheikh Abdullah was in jail), that “it would strengthen your position more if you lost a few seats to bonafide opponents.

Rigging and malpractices continued in subsequent elections. The fourth state assembly elections, held in 1967, were characterized by similar electoral malpractices and malfeasance; regarding the 1972 elections, it was confessed by none other than Syed Mir Qasim, who was chief minister of J&K at the time, in his memoir My Life and Times, “If elections were free and fair, the victory of the Plebiscite Front was a foregone conclusion The 1977 elections, were termed by many as relatively free and fair, and the only real elections ever held in Jammu and Kashmir. The perception that these elections were transparent is based primarily on the grounds that there was, for a change, no intervention from Delhi, but the domestic electoral malpractices and irregularities conducted by NC brought the fairness of these polls into question as well. There have been widespread charges of election-rigging in Kashmir which have plagued all the elections from 1951 till date. Though it is true that election-rigging is not specific to the State of J&K and has taken place in elections elsewhere in India, it becomes necessary to analyze elections in Kashmir, given the fact that the Indian State continues to argue that such elections are a substitute for the promised plebiscite. In 1978, Prem Nath Bazaz, a prominent Hindu Kashmiri journalist and activist summarized the political process in Jammu and Kashmir as follows: "After independence, rulers of J&K State were not the freely chosen representatives of the people as they should have been but were the nominees and the protégés of the Central Congress Government. Whether they were the leaders of the National Conference as in the early years (1947-53) and during 1975-77, or belonged to the Congress as in the intervening period, their source of power was New Delhi. In the 1977 election is often cited as an example of the only free and fair election held in J&K, charges of election irregularities such as large-scale capturing of polling booths, attacking opposition workers and voter intimidation have clouded the fairness of that election as well. Mrs. Indira Gandhi, who’s Congress Party, governed the state from 1965-1975 accused the Chief Minister Farooq Abdullah, of large scale rigging in 1983Assembly elections. When Farooq Abdullah joined hands with Rajiv Gandhi later, the rival groups accused him of massive rigging during the 1987 Assembly elections; the opposition Muslim United Front (MUF) showed how there were candidates getting votes but the ballot box was not producing them. In 1984, Farooq Abdullah was deposed by his brother-in-law, Ghulam Mohammed Shah, who had gained the backing of New Delhi. Before the next election in 1987, the national government decided to re-install Farooq Abdullah, and Shah was dumped as the candidate of the National Conference. The move continued a long-running policy of misguided politics and bungling, that has led to destabilization and has also prevented any Kashmiri leader from building a strong power base, and which has ensublack that potential chief ministers are beholden to New Delhi.

The oft-cited watershed elections of 1987 changed the political course in the state. In these elections, the NC–Congress alliance managed to win 66 of the 76 seats, while the Muslim United Front (MUF) could win only. The fate of Yousaf Shah’s third final attempt to become a legislator in the State assembly is replicated throughout the valley and some parts of Jammu region. India Today recorded the happenings of spring 1987. Its eyewitness report speaks of a pattern of ‘rigging and strong-arm tactics all over the valley, massive booth capturing (forcible takeover of polling stations) by gangs’, ‘entire ballot boxes pre-stamped in favor of NC’, numerous citizens “simply not being allowed to vote’ and government nominated supervisors ‘stopping the counting as soon as they saw opposition candidates taking a lead’ Meanwhile, the bureaucrats and clerks administering the process ‘worked blatantly in favour of NC-Congress alliance and the police refused to listen to any complaint.

Thus, the electoral victory of the NC–Congress alliance was “nothing but a usurpation of power.” Even former chief minister Farooq Abdullah admitted that these elections were entirely unfair, having been covertly rigged.” This indifference to election malpractices on a gigantic scale has given birth to gruesome terrorism in post 1987,” the people of Kashmir took up guns to attain their political rights.

After the 1987 elections, hundreds of thousands of troops were deployed in the valley to curb the militant freedom movement. In late 1989 and early 1990, Kashmiri Pandits had to flee the Kashmir valley because of being targeted by Kashmiri and foreign militants. By the turn of the last century, only 6.4% of Kashmir’s were Hindus. The US Department of State reports that, according to the Indian National Human Rights Commission, the Kashmiri Pandit population in Jammu and Kashmir dropped from 15 percent in 1941 to 0.1 percent as of 2006.This claim is however contradicted by official census reports. According to the 1901 census, "In the Kashmir province they [Hindus] represent only 524 in every 10,000 of population or 5.24%, while the 1941 census estimated the Hindu population of the Kashmir valley to be 4%.. According to a 2007 poll conducted by the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies in New Delhi, 84 percent of people in Srinagar want to see the return of Kashmiri Pandit’s. A survey found that within the Kashmir Valley, 92% respondents opposed the state of Kashmir being divided on the basis of religion or ethnicity. In 1931 a group of Kashmiri Pandits formed the organization in Srinagar Kashmir, named Sanatan Dharam Yuvak Sabha later changed to All State Kashmiri Pandit Conference. The 1st conference of the organization was presided over by Late Justice Jia Lal Kilam. In 1990 Governor Rule was imposed, and the local administration obtained permission from the Indian government to extend it further every six months until 1996. The state assembly elections, due in 1992, were postponed several times. When they were finally held in 1996, they were strongly boycotted by the people and so heavily rigged by the authorities that they were declared a “farce. The Indian political establishment, however, insisted, against all evidences to the contrary, that the elections had been ‘free and fair.

India projected the 2002 elections in the valley as a referendum indicating that people had reconciled with the ground realities and were ready to repose their confidence in

Indian democracy. The Indian deputy prime minister at the time, L. K Advani, described these elections as a victory for India and a triumph for democracy. However, the genuineness and transparency of the poll process was contested by the international media and nongovernmental organizations and even within India as well.

In 2008, Elections for the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir were held over seven days in November and December 2008. The previous government led by the Jammu and Kashmir People's Democratic Party (PDP) in coalition with the Indian National Congress (INC) collapsed when the PDP withdrew. Following the election, the Jammu & Kashmir National Conference (NC) agreed a coalition with Congress and their leader, Omar Abdullah became the state's youngest ever Chief Minister at age of 38.

Elections for the Jammu and Kashmir state Assembly were due in 2008, following the end of the term of the Assembly elected in 2002. However the PDP withdrew from the INC-led state government in protest at the Amaranth land transfer decision. The INC government resigned in July 2008 and the state was brought under direct rule of the central government pending the elections. The main Kashmiri separatist group, the All Parties Hurriyat Conference called on Kashmiris to boycott the elections, saying the elections were a "futile exercise" that would never "fulfill the aspirations of the people.

Despite these boycott calls, NC leaders claimed that activists from Jamaat-e-Islami had come out and voted for the PDP.

There were scattered separatist protests throughout the elections, including hundreds who protested in Srinagar. Police prevented these protestors from marching to the centre of the city which led to protestors throwing stones at the police who fired tear gas and used baton charges. Former National Conference Chief Minister, Farooq Abdullah, said he did not want to return as it "required the energy of a younger man", and nominated his son,Omar Abdullah, and the head of the Jammu & Kashmir National Conference instead.

Congress debated forming a coalition with either Conference or the PDP. It was reported that the PDP had offered to support a Congress candidate for Chief Minister if they joined with them. However, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress chairperson Sonia Gandhi were reported to favour the largest party to "honour the mandate" of the election.

Congress and the National Conference agreed to form a coalition government, with Omar Abdullah as Chief Minister.

On November 21, 2008, Omar Abdullah argued “Kashmir can be resolved through a process of sustainable dialogue between India, Pakistan, United Jihad Council, Hurriyat Conference and other pro-freedom parties. The Amaranth land transfer row has proved to be political oxygen for BJP; due to this plank, BJP jumped from 1 seat in the last assembly elections to 11, achieving a historic victory in J&K politics wherein it had previously remained at the periphery. The revocation of the land transfer order, which earlier transferred 800 canals of land to the Amarnath Shrine Board, enraged the Hindus of Jammu and BJP skillfully exploited these sentiments. When there was uncertainty over the holding of elections, the BJP was the only party that wanted elections to be held as soon as possible; BJP General Secretary Arun Jaitley said: “If Kashmir is not ready for elections why should Jammu and Ladakh regions wait for it.

Although, the political mood is catching up with the voters and the election campaigning has started in full swing, a low voter turn out this year can not be ruled out. The poll boycott announced by the separatist leaders is most likely to affect the voter turnout this year. In the 2002 assembly elections a commendable 44% voter turn out was recorded, which even validated the electoral exercise and the government that was formed after the polls.

Moreover, other factors like unfavorable weather in the coming weeks are also likely to complicate things for the state.

However, the Centre’s failure to conduct a free and fair elections in J&K will only add up to the divisive politics of the state by strengthening the separatist forces. The absence of an elected government in Jammu & Kashmir will not only corrode the roots of democracy but also alienate the people from the mainstream. At this juncture, the elections in J&K assume unusual significance since Muslims in the Valley are almost wholly alienated from both New Delhi and Srinagar. For the nation, a relatively peaceful electoral process will confer legitimacy for its democratic and secular polity.

Made by:- Vinod Thakur