Kashmir's quest for local democracy

By George Mathew

KANGAN BLOCK is 45 km from Srinagar on the Kargil-Leh highway. It takes an hour and a half to cover this distance because the highway is only notional. More than a hundred people, mostly elected Sarpanches, Naib Sarpanches and Panches, had gathered in the BDO's office. The elections to the Halqa panchayats in Kangan - one of the four blocks in Srinagar district - were held in March this year. Mr. Jalaludin Sheikh, sarpanch of Akhal panchayat, polled 800 votes. Akhal has 1,900 voters of whom 1,200 cast their votes (women turned up in large numbers) in the March elections. Mr. Jalaluddin was elected from among six contestants. Was there any threat from the militants to the candidates during the elections? No. Did the militants intimidate the voters? No.

Have the panchayats been officially convened? No. Not because of any threat from the militants but because the Government moves rather slowly. There is no notification, there is no panchayat building. Although the officers said the notification convening panchayats was issued on July 27, the elected sarpanches and members unanimously said they did not receive any communication. ``We do not have a place to sit. How can we, therefore, convene the panchayat meetings,'' asked a sarpanch. Kangan block needs 27 panchayat buildings. There are only seven. The panchayat building in the area we met in is a good one, but the block officials have occupied it, and even about six months after the election it has not been handed over to the elected panchayat.

Of course, the State Government has a plan to construct panchayat buildings wherever none exists. Many were destroyed at the peak of militancy, some were set on fire by miscreants in the early 1990s, and security forces have occupied a large number. The present budget for panchayat building is about Rs. 5 lakhs and around Rs. 25,000 for furniture. The blueprint is ready, the budget is allocated but the work has not yet begun. People are getting impatient.

During the Kangan meeting, we began with a normal dialogue but as the meeting progressed, things hotted up. The sarpanches and panches started shouting, giving expression to their woes, their worries, their anxieties. ``People were behind us when we got elected six months ago. They are getting disillusioned as days go by,'' said one sarpanch. ``We are mostly wage labourers. There was a hydro-electric project nearby. The project was stopped midway. There are no industries, no cattle, no sheep. We have no infrastructure in our villages - no roads, no bridges, no drinking water, no electricity, no dispensary, no doctor, no school,'' he went on, adding up the list of problems. When the panchayat rules for governance are not yet framed or vacancies to the elected positions are not filled, there is frustration.

The panchayat elections in Jammu and Kashmir were held in three phases between December 2000 and March 2001. This was also a case of lost opportunities. The ideal time to hold the elections was immediately after the 1996 Assembly polls. But the National Conference and the Government dilly-dallied. When the elections took place eventually, they revealed Kashmir's quest for local democracy. In the Ladakh area, elections were normal. In Jammu also, there was enthusiastic response (voting percentage was 75- 80) except in 10-15 panchayats in the blocks of Banilal, Warwan and Marwah in Doda district. In the Kashmir division, there are 64 blocks and 1,470 Halqa panchayats and here 1,042 sarpanches were elected. Of the 10,458 panches (members), 5,155 got elected leaving 5,303 vacancies. Given the problems in the Valley, this was not a small achievement. The message it conveyed was loud and clear. The Kashmiris yearn for grassroots democracy.

This was the first time elections were held through secret ballot. The earlier ones, the last was in 1979, were by a show of hands in a meeting. Another significant development was that while a substantial number of the State Government employees did not take part in the 1996 Assembly elections because of the prevailing situation all of them fully participated this time. More significantly, elections were free and fair. No force was used and there were no complaints, according to senior officials and the villagers I interacted with in several places in the Valley. According to reports, 14 candidates/sarpanches were killed during and after the elections. At a meeting with senior officials in Gulmarg, I was told that in Kupwara and Baramullah districts alone, nine persons lost their lives. But when I probed into the details I could confirm only three incidents of election-related deaths. Incidentally, not a single Government employee who was on election duty was threatened or hurt by militants.

If Jammu and Kashmir had a vibrant local self-government system, would the situation have been different? Everyone with whom I discussed this felt a democratically elected local self- government would have made a lot of difference. It was a necessary condition, but, of course, not a sufficient condition. Deprivation and frustration were the main factors which contributed to the young and old getting attracted to the extremists. Because of the extreme cold, the time available for development activities is limited in the Valley. There is a persistent complaint that the Central Government does not understand these hard realities. As the Central officers are indifferent to the gravity of the situation, Kashmir is caught in a trap. There is a widespread feeling that the establishment in Delhi has little understanding of the psyche of the Kashmiri people. Cash-starved Kashmir had to spend Rs. 14.5 crores for conducting the panchayat elections from its kitty; while as a special case this money could have come from the Centre along with the necessary security personnel.

It is no secret that Pakistan tried its best to subvert the panchayat elections in Kashmir. One wonders why the State lost valuable time in 1996 or 1997 to hold the panchayat elections. That would have sent the right message to Pakistan and the rest of the world. Instead, the elections took place after the first phase of the local bodies in Pakistan in December 2000! It must be said to the credit of the National Conference that in the last five years it has put some of the fragile institutions back on the rails. The fact that the State Government could hold the census operations successfully in spite of serious threats is no mean achievement. The panchayat elections, with the extraordinary enthusiasm of the people, have taken some of the sting out of the militants.

In the light of the September 11 terrorist attacks in the U.S. and the subsequent international developments, the Kashmiris hope militancy will subside in the Valley. In any event, the target of the militants in the recent past has not been the civilians. Will the State Government seize this wonderful opportunity? This question is uppermost in the minds of all concerned with Kashmir and the well-being of the Kashmiris.

Jammu and Kashmir is facing the painful reality of marginalisation. Those at the helm of affairs in Delhi somehow refuse to recognise it. Kashmir and its multi-faceted problems are often misunderstood and misinterpreted, resulting in the people's further alienation from the rest of India. Vibrant democratic institutions at different levels are the best way to arrest that alienation. The State Government should take a pro- active role in strengthening these instrumentalities. The Centre, while attempting to combat militancy and terrorism, should not spare any effort to seriously grapple with the basic issues, including building confidence among the Kashmiri people. The local bodies polls have shown that the spirit of the Kashmiris cannot be undermined. In Iqbal's famous words:

``The earth, whose dust conceals the fire of the Chinar in its conscience Can never go cold, nor ever lose its self-respect.''

(The writer is Director, Institute of Social Sciences, New Delhi).

Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Section  : Opinion
Previous : From WTC to WTO
Next     : Example of doublespeak