By Sameer Yasir
For the first time in a decade, Muslim-majority Kashmir in India will hold an election for its regional legislature starting next month, the country’s election commission said on Friday.
The announcement is a step toward returning some measure of self-governance to Kashmir after the Hindu-nationalist government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi stripped the region of its semiautonomous status in 2019 and suspended democracy there.
In December, India’s Supreme Court ruled in a case challenging the revocation of Kashmir’s special status. While the court upheld the government’s move, it ordered that a process be undertaken to select a democratically elected government and to restore statehood for what is formally known as Jammu and Kashmir.
“Everyone we met wanted elections,” Rajiv Kumar, India’s chief election commissioner, told reporters in New Delhi, referring to a recent visit he made to the region.
Kashmir is at the heart of a long and bitter dispute between India and Pakistan. The Indian-controlled part of the region has endured decades of political unrest. Tens of thousands of militants, Indian soldiers and ordinary civilians have been killed during an insurgency.
A legislative election that would have taken place in 2019 was deferred after the federal government in New Delhi brought the region — the only one in India with a Muslim majority — under its direct control.
Iltija Mufti, a leader of the People’s Democratic Party, a local party that previously governed the region, said that holding an election was essential to restoring Kashmiris’ long suspended fundamental rights.
“Kashmir was a semiautonomous state. We had our own flag, our own constitution,” Ms. Mufti said. “None of that remains anymore. But can we concede this democratic space? I don’t think so, not even an inch.”
Still, Ms. Mufti said she believed that the federal government would try to tilt the playing field toward its preferred candidates, denying those who once governed the region a fair chance to return to power.
After the last election, in 2014, Mr. Modi’s party joined a powerful regional party dominated by Muslims to create a state government that allowed Hindu nationalists to rule the region for the first time.
That alliance broke down in 2018 after years of disagreement over how to bring some semblance of normalcy and peace to Kashmir’s blood-soaked streets. The legislature was dissolved, and as the violence intensified, India and Pakistan — nuclear-armed neighbors — moved to the brink of war.
About a year later, Mr. Modi’s government stripped Kashmir of its semiautonomy and split it into two federally administrated enclaves. To quell any possible street protests, the Indian government shut down communication systems, deployed tens of thousands of troops to the area and jailed thousands of people, including separatist leaders, human rights activists and civilians.
Since then, India has maintained a tight grip over the region, including by dismissing from their jobs many government officials suspected of opposing New Delhi’s control.
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The region has been plunged into fresh turmoil, including in places that have been historically spared violence, with 50 Indian Army soldiers having been killed in clashes with militants over the past 32 months, according to local media reports.
Results from the Kashmir election will be released on Oct. 4, the election commission said, adding that more than 8.7 million people are eligible to cast ballots.
Mohammad Yousuf Tarigami, a former lawmaker in Kashmir, said the growing militancy and deaths of soldiers had put pressure on the federal government, leaving it with no other option but to announce the election.
“We know it will be a less powerful assembly,” he said. “But it provides us the opportunity to express ourselves, and we can raise our voice against injustice.”
source : newyork times