Baramulla Voting: Don't lose it in debates

After record-breaking polling in Baramulla constituency on May 20, there has been a rush to claim credit among the stakeholders in the government and the political parties in the Valley. True, the credit has to go somewhere but not without analysing why did the voters come out in such large numbers to elect their representative to Lok Sabha.

The atmosphere has changed but how much the people have contributed in changing these atmospherics is being overlooked. The truth is people made all this possible. Had that not been so, more than 59 per cent of 17.34 lakh voters in Baramulla would  not have come out – they surpassed the voting percentage of many constituencies in the country. There is something more than what is being sold and told.

The real issue at stake is that the highest turnout of voters  in the past over four decades should not be lost in the credit-taking exercise. Past is past. The turnout has to be seen through the prism of future. Any blame-game on the voting percentage is not only useless it also has portents of insulting the voters, who for the first time since 2014 voice their trust in vote. It is not to undermine the elections in the past or Lok Sabha elections in 2019, but the history has ways of showing mirror to those  pedalling to  claim credit.

Baramulla, or north Kashmir’s voters have sent a message that they cannot be taken for granted. They have their right to vote, which they exercised. Decoding has been left to analysts. Any wrong assessment or political interpretation would be their insult.

The June 4 results will decide the winner, and the number of votes he or the party polled, there is something more that should be understood. It is not the mere party or the individual that would matter. The voters have declared a collective verdict of their desire to bask in the glory of peace in which they and their representatives can express their voices without any fear.

In the current circumstances, it has become mandatory to make abrogation of Article 370 an all-time reference point. The Centre has been telling the people in J&K that their new-found freedom to vote and move about normally is all due to the August 5, 2019 decisions – the scrapping of Article 370 and 35-A.

The argument is that they have been pulled out of morass in which they had sunk by terrorism and political waywardness. The Centre, or the BJP that rules in the country, thinks that the vote is an expression of gratitude by the people to what it did five years ago. They are drawing bond between the abrogation of Article 370 and changing voting patterns.

The BJP leadership has worked hard through all the means available with it to tell the world that this high voting percentage is a vote for Indian nationalism. The nation is being made to believe that the change in the voting demography is all because of this “revolutionary” changes made in the Indian constitution on August 5, 2019 as the people of J&K were unshackled on the day of their isolation, corrupt rules and backwardness.

A lot of arguments are advanced to suggest that all this has been made possible in the last five years, to be precise 58 months. One  of the  formidable and convincing  arguments is decimation of terrorism in Kashmir, which enabled the voters to line outside polling booths. This is a statement of facts. The shadow of guns disappeared, and the people exercised their right to vote in a fearless manner.

Of course, there is other side to it, profoundly articulated by National Conference and PDP, that it is manifestation of the pent up feelings of anger and frustration against the scrapping of Article 370. Whose side is having more weight would be known on June 4 - the day of results. In the given nature of political contest, in which BJP is absent from the race, it is very difficult to know where and how did the supporters of abrogation of Article 370 vote. For that matter neither Sajad Gani Lone of People’s Conference nor Engineer Rashid of Awami Iteehad Party would like to claim that the vote for them validated the August 5, 2019 decision.

There is a need to read between the lines. It is not a black and white situation where yes or no of the voters on Article 370 is at stake. The voters in Kashmir are intelligent enough to know what is at stake, it is their future.

They know that the restoration of Article 370 is near impossible, because no political party or group of parties in the country can summon the courage to reverse the August 2019 decisions as the nation believes that this particular constitutional provision was a hindrance between Kashmir and India, and now that stands broken.

Even Congress manifesto stops at restoration of statehood. It is silent on Article 370, the party knows political price that it would have to pay across the country. That Congress can ever restore Article 370 by any stretch of imagination is overestimation of the Grand Old Party. That may be good political rhetoric in the polarized atmosphere in the country, but not anywhere close to reality.

Give credit for voting to people. The Kashmiri voter is looking at future in which he can breathe peacefully without having to be seen in police stations to explain his / her antecedents. The voters have spoken, and now Delhi must understand that it takes two hands to build bonds or people to people connect. The voters in Kashmir have opened windows of opportunities – now those should be availed, no matter who wins or …….