IN the Illegally-occupied Jammu & Kashmir (IIJ&K), the first and second phases of the so-called elections have been completed in the shadow of the bayonets of more than one million Indian occupying soldiers, aimed at throwing dust in the eyes of the world with the collusion of the Modi government and the Indian Supreme Court. The purpose of the Modi government’s pretence of a fake election is to justify the illegal action of August 5, 2019, and to end the Muslim identity by bringing a Hindu Chief Minister to Occupied Kashmir. The Occupied Kashmir Assembly has a total of 90 seats, of which 43 are from Jammu and 47 from Kashmir. The third phase will be held on October 1, while the results are expected on October 8. Several additional powers have been given to the Lieutenant Governor of Occupied Kashmir before the elections, rendering the role of the Chief Minister elected afterward nominal. Decisions on important matters will remain with the Central Government of India.
These elections are taking place in an environment where the Kashmiri independence leadership is under arrest and Hurriyat leaders are being forced to change their political stance. The election is a flagrant violation of United Nations resolutions. It is regrettable that human rights organizations, including the UN, have given Hindu extremists a free pass for their stubbornness and arbitrariness while remaining silent on Indian aggression and brutality. The first Indian Prime Minister, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, stood in Lal Chowk, Srinagar, and promised the Kashmiri people that there is no basis for the accession of Kashmir to India but that the Kashmiris would be asked through a free referendum what they want. Viceroy Lord Mountbatten also stated that this accession is temporary, but August 5, 2019, marked a dark day when the fascist Modi government abrogated Articles 370 and 35A, which granted special status to Occupied Kashmir.
For these state elections to be held after a decade in Occupied Kashmir, the population ratio of the valley was altered. Four million non-Kashmiri Hindus were issued domiciles in Occupied Kashmir and given the right to vote, aiming to convert the Muslim majority identity into a minority one. Similarly, the Occupied Kashmir Assembly seats were disproportionately increased. As a result of the new constituencies, six seats were added in Jammu and only one seat in the Kashmir Valley. According to the 2011 census, the Muslim population in Occupied Jammu and Kashmir was 68.3%, while Hindus constituted 28.2%. The 2022 Delimitation Commission allocated 47 Assembly seats to the Muslim-majority Kashmir Valley, home to 56.15% of the state’s population, and 43 seats to Jammu, where Hindus are 43.85%. Consequently, one voter from the Kashmir Valley equals 0.8 voters from Jammu. The number of seats in the Hindu constituency of Jammu Division increased from 25 to 31, allowing the 28% Hindu population to secure 34.44% of seats in the 90-member assembly.
Although Hindus are the majority, Muslims make up 34.21% of Jammu’s population. Unfair delimitation has reduced Muslim-majority constituencies from 12 to 9. New Hindu-majority constituencies were created in Jammu, while three times as many Muslim-majority constituencies were denied Assembly seats. Additionally, Muslim-majority districts of Poonch and Rajouri were included in the Lok Sabha constituency of Anantnag. After the elections, Lt. Governor Manoj Sinha will nominate five members for specific seats, increasing the assembly members from 90 to 95, comprising two women, two Kashmiri Pandits and one Hindu immigrant from Pakistan in 1947.
A nefarious plan to disproportionally benefit the Hindu minority and render the Muslim majority population powerless and helpless in the fake elections of the Occupied Kashmir Assembly has been exposed while pursuing a conspiracy to divide the Muslim vote. A large number of independent candidates have been fielded in Muslim-majority areas under regular systematic planning. BJP candidates are contesting elections on 19 seats of Occupied Kashmir and all 43 seats of Jammu. On one side is the alliance of National Conference and Congress, on the other side is Mehbooba Mufti’s PDP and on the third side is Engineer Rasheed’s Awami Ittehad Party, which has an electoral alliance with Jamaat-e-Islami. Nine days before the elections, prominent Kashmiri politician Sheikh Rasheed Engineer was released on interim bail. Jamaat-e-Islami contested elections in India for the last time in 1987, after which it was banned. Nine candidates of Jamaat-e-Islami are standing in the recent election.
The National Conference is contesting elections on 51 out of 90 seats in occupied Jammu and Kashmir, while the Congress is contesting on 32. In the April parliamentary elections, the BJP won 29 assembly constituencies. Currently, there is a war-like atmosphere in Kashmir. Extremist Modi’s use of state terrorism continues to deprive basic rights and religious freedoms. The Modi government has turned the Valley into a Nazi detention camp. The Indian establishment has suppressed the Kashmiri media with autocratic tactics. Muslims living in remote rural and border areas of Jammu are being evicted from their properties. Indian authorities have already confiscated the properties of many freedom fighters including Syed Ali Geelani Shaheed, Shabbir Ahmad Shah, Asia Andrabi and several Hurriyat leaders of Jamaat-e-Islami. The butcher of Gujarat is following the heinous plan of making Occupied Kashmir another Rohingya for Muslims.
Pakistan has consistently kept the doors of negotiations with India open for regional and international peace. However, the Indian army has exacerbated border tensions and intensified atrocities against Kashmiris by fabricating terrorism incidents in Uri and Pulwama, effectively denying their right to self-determination. During the occupied Kashmir Assembly elections, votes are being solicited under the guise of opposition to Pakistan. On September 8, Indian Defence Minister Rajnath Singh claimed in Jammu, “We have convinced our Kashmiris. They have no complaint against us, but the (independent) Kashmir on the other side continues to provoke our Kashmiri brothers. Kashmiris must prove how useful it is for them to stay in India.” Similarly, Indian Home Minister Amit Shah, in his September 6 manifesto, criticized Pakistan and the freedom fighters of Occupied Kashmir. Modi’s actions suggest a calculated strategy to manipulate the electoral process. Meanwhile, the emergence of well-equipped Kashmiri libertarians directly counters Indian military operations, indicating a need for practical solutions to the Kashmir issue beyond mere rhetoric.
—The writer is contributing columnist.
