J&K panchayat polls: BJP is fishing in troubled waters

The holding of Block Development Council (BDC) elections a week before the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act comes into effect is “nothing but a farce and a mockery of democracy,” say leaders and grassroots level workers of non-BJP political parties.

The second-tier Panchayat election schedule has been fixed to give an undue advantage to the BJP which appears confident of winning a majority of the chairmen’s posts.

The first-tier Panchayat elections were held on non-party basis in 2018 after a gap of six years. The BDC elections, however, are being held on October 24 along party lines for 310 blocks out of the total 316 blocks in 22 districts of J&K.

In the BDC elections, only the panchs and sarpanchs are entitled to vote to elect chairmen of their respective blocks. The legitimacy of the BDC elections is being questioned by non-BJP political parties because nearly 64 percent of the electorates – panchs and sarpanchs – are lying vacant in just the Kashmir Valley where security lockdown and communications blockade continue since the revocation of semi-autonomous status of the state and its division into two Union Territories.

The BDC elections should have been held after October 31 when over 100 central laws would be applicable to the newly created Union Territory of J&K, said All Jammu Kashmir Panchayat Conference (AJPC) president Anil Sharma.

“The holding of elections after October 31 would have ensured maximum participation of people as per the 73rd Amendment of the Indian Constitution,” he averred.

Demanding postponement of the elections, AJPC warned of a state-wide campaign in support of strengthening grassroots level democracy.

Another local organisation, Movement for Peace, Equality and Justice has accused the Governor’s administration of conducting BDC elections in a “hush-hush manner.”

“Panchayati Raj institutions are not political identities but community institutions. These institutions must be kept away from politics,” it said in a statement.

Opposition political parties have been crying foul over the unilateral poll decision of the government to benefit the ruling party.

While all prominent non-BJP leaders in Kashmir Valley remain under detention, those who had been put under house arrest in Jammu province were released a day after the announcement of election date. However, they have been advised to refrain from political activities.

National Conference (NC) provincial president Devender Singh Rana said, “Detentions are supposed to be a part of the politics. But such detentions should not hamper the democratic process.”

His party has slammed the decision to hold elections, calling them “the biggest mockery of democracy.”

The principal Opposition parties of J&K, NC and Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) had boycotted the first-tier polls.

“The BJP wants to score a self goal in this election. It wants to eliminate all Opposition parties,” the chairman of Jammu and Kashmir National Panthers Party and a former minister in state government, Harsh Dev Singh, said. “The ruling party is misusing the massive mandate it got in Lok Sabha elections to destroy democracy in Jammu and Kashmir,” he added.

“Both PM Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah had promised to implement the 73rd amendment in the state. Now what would you say when the Prime Minister and Home Minister of a country start resorting to lies,” he asked. “The government chose to go ahead with the BDC polls without taking detained Opposition leaders into confidence,” he added.

Complaining that only four days have been given for filing of nomination papers, he said, “It is very difficult for the candidates to fulfil formalities in such a short period amid restrictions. Who will contest the elections except BJP candidates?” He questioned the “much trumpeted slogan of Election Commission of India for providing a level playing field to all political parties.”

There are reports of several PDP, NC and Congress panches and sarpanches joining the BJP and supporting the party’s candidate for the posts of BDC chairpersons.

In early September, Union Home Minister Amit Shah had met several delegations of elected Panchayat representatives from Jammu and Kashmir at his North Block office. He had assured of providing police security and Rs 2 lakh life insurance cover to each panch and sarpanch.

He reportedly promised that at least five youths from each village of Jammu and Kashmir will be given government jobs in the coming months and the demand for increasing the honorarium of the Panchayat representatives will also be considered.

Shah recently said in New Delhi that the central government will provide Rs 70,000 crore to panchayats for the development of villages in Jammu and Kashmir.

But on the ground such announcements have not evoked much excitement. “Even, the BJP is not holding public meetings or rallies this time. Unlike previous elections, poll campaigns are a low key affair this time in Jammu region,” said a Block Development Officer, stationed in Rajouri district, who is currently attending a training workshop on Gram Panchayat Development Plan in Jammu.

In Kashmir Valley, most of the panchayat representatives have been housed in hotels, rented by the government and secured by the paramilitary forces due to fear of attacks by militants.

Stressing that “time and situation are not suitable for the polls”, Congress spokesperson Ravinder Sharma alleged that “the elections are being held to allow the BJP to gain control of Panchayati Raj institutions.”

“Despite the government’s continued undemocratic actions against the Opposition leaders, the Congress has taken a brave decision to participate in the elections in the larger interest of democracy,” he remarked. “We don’t want a BJP versus None situation in BDC polls.”