Kashmiris demand Article 370 restoration as India imposes election: reports

India is holding a sham provincial election Occupied Jammu and Kashmir from Sept. 18, five years after New Delhi scrapped the region’s special autonomy due to its disputed status.

More than 9 million voters are eligible to choose members for the region’s 90-seat legislature in the three-phase election, the second phase of which was underway on Wednesday. The sham vote is the first in the region since 2014 and most of Kashmiris are not happy after their limited autonomy was stolen and even these polls don’t offer any hope.

A number of reports in international media suggest that people of Kashmir want their freedom more than anything else and these sham elections mean nothing to them.

In 2019, India PM Modi’s government abolished Article 370, a move which led to severe security measures, mass detentions, curfews, and a prolonged internet blackout, ultimately stripping residents of their limited rights to jobs and land.

Today, even pro-India Kashmiri parties, many of whose leaders were among thousands jailed in 2019 after the movie, are contesting the election, promising to reverse those changes.

India’s main opposition party Congress’s leader Rahul Gandhi today reiterated the promise of what he termed restoring Jammu and Kashmir (J&K)’s statehood, saying they would fight for it in Parliament as well as take to the streets

The National Conference party also accused Modi’s BJP is trying to manipulate the election through independents. “Their (BJP’s) concerted effort is to divide the vote in Kashmir,” said Tanvir Sadiq, a candidate from the National Conference.

Noor Ahmed Baba, a political scientist, told AP News Agency that the outcome of the polls “is not going to change the dynamics of the Kashmir dispute” since it will end with a largely powerless legislature, but will be crucial for optics.

A prominent election candidate Engineer Rashid told BBC that his political agenda focuses on developmental issues, governance, and resolving the Kashmir issue, resonating with voters who lost statehood and autonomy five years ago.

“For me, secularism is not important right now. For me, what is important is that Kashmir’s honour and dignity be restored, the Kashmir issue resolved,” he told The Indian Express in an interview, further adding that the traditional parties, like the PDP and the NC, have failed to uphold the trust people had put in them.

“Article 370 was a political issue, but they made it a legal issue. The street is a politician’s playground, not the court. It was a political fight, should have been fought politically,” he added.

Reflecting on the changes in Kashmir since the abrogation of Article 370, Rashid paints a grim picture, countering the BJP’s narrative of “Naya Kashmir.” He acknowledges a shift in mood, with more Kashmiris willing to engage in the electoral process, but attributes this not to any positive development by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government, but to a sense of deep oppression.

“If Rahul Gandhi promises that after coming to power, even after 50 years, he will bring a Bill to restore Article 370, I will follow them,” added Rashid.