Prospects of panchayat poll grim in south

Dates for panchayat elections were announced a day ago. It isn’t clear yet how the polls will unravel eventually but given the mood of the past contestants, prospects appear grim in southern Kashmir.

While none have evinced interest to contest yet, even former panchayat representatives were reluctant to speak for this report.

Only a few of them spoke on the condition of anonymity and out rightly blamed political parties for putting their lives at risk in the last election.

A sarpanch from a village in Awantipora said he contested 2011 panchayat elections “so our villages could see some development”.

He said National Conference, Peoples Democratic Party, Congress and others political parties made matters worse for them by revealing political affiliations of sarpanches.

“Only a year later unidentified gunmen started targeting panchayat representatives,” he said.

“I announced my resignation in a mosque in 2013 and also published the same in a daily,” he said.

Since then, especially after the 2016 uprising that turned southern Kashmir into the epicenter of current resurgence in insurgency, contesting any election has become an uphill task.

“No one in our area is willing to fight this election,” the sarpanch said.

Recently, Hizbul  Mujahideen operational commander Riyaz Naikoo, who hails from Awantipora, said in a video message: “If you are getting an election form, bring a shroud along with you.”

Another former sarpanch from a village in Rajpora Assembly constituency said it became increasingly difficult for panchayat institutions to work when they had to see “killings and harassment of people” on a daily basis.

“Army’s interference also made our lives miserable. I regret why I participated in the polls in 2011,” he said.

The situation is worse in the most volatile districts of Kulgam and Shopian, where people even are not aware about the schedule for panchayat elections.

“We are hardly bothered. Nobody is going to participate here,” said a former panchayat representative of Redwani Bali area Home Shalibugh Assembly segment of Kulgam.

Many former panchayat representatives in villages of Wach-Zainpora of Shopian felt the same.

Former panchayat chairman Khurshid Ahmad Malik questioned the sincerity of the government in conducting panchayat polls.

“The government is not concerned about lives of panchs and sarpanchs. They only want to hoodwink the world by telling it Kashmiris have faith in democratic institutions,” he said.

In 2011, Malik was elected as sarpanch from Nagam village of Kokernag in Anantnag.

He unsuccessfully contested 2014 assembly elections on BJP ticket from Kokernag assembly segment. However, he recently quit the party.

“They could not conduct Parliament by-elections in south Kashmir but are adamant holding panchayat elections in this situation. This clearly indicates their intentions. They want to push us into a civil war. It hardly matters for them if people get killed in the process,” Malik said.

According to J&K Panchayat Association, at least 16 panchayat representatives were killed and many injured in the five years of the term which ended in March 2016.

Nearly 60 percent people had turned up to vote in last panchayat elections held after a gap of 40 years.