Vijay Kranti
71 percent of voters turning up at the polling booths show that Kashmir is witnessing a qualitative change in its mindset. Irrespective of whether Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his friends comes to power in the State or not, Kashmir is surely moving from a State of Mind to yet another State of India.
Not too many years ago most newspapers across India front paged a photograph showing a TV set placed prominently in the middle of street outside a polling booth in central Srinagar. An obnoxious looking gift tag “PRIZE FOR THE FIRST VOTER” ran boldly across the width of the photo . This photo demonstrated less of the audacity of the separatist and terrorist groups of Kashmir and more of the helplessness of the State administration or the fear psychosis that dominated the ordinary Kashmiris’ mindscape — may be both. No surprise that the voter turnout in the Valley and the ordinary Indian citizens’ indifference to the J&K elections used to compete with each other in most of past elections in the State.
Now compare it with the unprecedented scenes during the first phase of polling for the J&K Assembly which the entire world watched with awe and excitement. One photo shows a sea of Phiran clad voters spread from end to end in more than five layers of endless queues outside a polling station in Bandipora. Yet another shows a similar crowd of thousands of voters standing peacefully as a long queue of cheerful women voters holding their personal ‘Kangri’, dominate the foreground. And yet another shows an endless queue of voters amidst a sea of fallen maple leaves on the ground and a meadow of leafless jungle of trunks providing an artistic backdrop to the smiling crowd.
On the other side of the Pir Panjal too, it is first time in the six decade long history of Indian elections that J&K elections are being discussed in drawing rooms and board rooms across India with as much, rather more interest and enthusiasm than the just concluded elections in Maharashtra and Haryana. Whether it is because of the oratory magic of Modi or his art of hijacking the minds of masses like the legendary pied piper of Hamelin, there is no doubt that he has been fully successful in rehabilitating Kashmir in the mind of the nation in a manner that was beyond anyone’s imagination all these years.
This glowing enthusiasm of Kashmiri voters who logged an impressive over 71 percent attendance at the polling booths, stands out in sharp contrast to the demoralization that starkly dominates the militant and separatist camps who, until recently had got used to calling the shots through their diktats of mass poll boycott in the Valley. The gloom that envelops the home of the most ‘celebrated’ separatist Kashmiri leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani in the Valley represents this mesmerizing change in full perfection.
Answering a question from a visiting journalist that why wall painted slogans or poster-pamphlets supporting his boycott call were missing from Srinagar city, he replied, “It’s because I and all my supporters are in preventive custody.” When asked about big crowds of enthusiastic voters outside polling booths his only answer was that, “The Army and paramilitary forces have forced people out….”. One wonders if even his most gullible supporters would ever believe him that the Indian Army has suddenly acquired the power of making crowds of thousands stand in long queues, smile and burst in loud laughter is chilling cold weather?
Experts and knowledgeable ones on the J&K politics are busy arguing whether this extra ordinary turn out of voters in the Valley reflects the changing public moods in favour of Modi or it actually means a collective effort on the part of Kashmiri people to push back the Modi wave from overwhelming their Valley like the rest of India? To some this massive surge of voters represents the last shove for the already non functional Abdullah family and the Congress. There is no shortage of experts who see it as a clear sign of public support in favour of the only other alternative family — the Muftys to start their own innings in ruling the State.
The nation and the world will come to know of the real election results only in the last week of December when all beeps on the Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) are counted. But at least one unambiguous sign is fast emerging from this unprecedented public enthusiasm towards the democratic process. The ordinary people in the Valley now appear too restless to stay confined in the six decade long house arrest that has been imposed upon them by their self styled political conscience keepers. Peace and prosperity appears to be returning to their agenda.
After all, one does not need to be a rocket scientist to realise that it is this very crowd of voters who have lost thousand of their children to the bullets of militants and armed forces during past six decades while children of militant and separatist leaders were enjoying all fun and studies abroad. As millions of Indian TV viewers enthusiastically watch long queues of Valley voters waiting in the chilly winds for their turn at the EVMs, Kashmir is slowly, but decisively moving out of its old state of mind to its new place as a State of India. And that is, perhaps, the greatest contribution of the Modi Factor in today’s Kashmir.
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