Elections in Kashmir after constituencies recast: Modi

India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi (bottom centre) poses for a picture with various political leaders from Jammu and Kashmir, in New Delhi yesterday.

Indian Premier Narendra Modi told leaders from Jammu and Kashmir that elections would be held there after the region’s constituencies were reconfigured following the revocation of its semi-autonomous statehood, meeting participants said. The talks yesterday were the first between Modi and Kashmiri leaders since the government scrapped the region’s special status in 2019, detaining thousands of people and imposing a months-long lockdown. Kashmiri leaders have long demanded a restoration of their semi-autonomy and for elections to be held, but India has been working to re-adjust some assembly and parliamentary constituencies there under a process known as “delimitation”. Modi later took to Twitter to reiterate the line he had taken in the roughly three-hour talks in New Delhi. “Delimitation has to happen at a quick pace so that polls can happen and Jammu and Kashmir gets an elected government that gives strength to J&K’s development trajectory,” he said. Regional leaders said they pressed their demand for restoration of statehood and limited autonomy at the talks. “We told the prime minister that we don’t stand with what was done on August 5, 2019,” said Omar Abdullah, leader of the regional party National Conference. “We’re not ready to accept it, but we won’t take law into hands, we will fight this in court.” As well as revoking the region’s statehood and semi-autonomy in August 2019, India split its only Muslim majority state into two federally administered territories. It said the changes were needed to spur development in a region where an armed insurgency has raged for decades against New Delhi’s rule. The shock decision to revoke the region’s statehood and semi-autonomy triggered protests by thousands of people and was criticised by local leaders who said they were never consulted. Ahead of that move, India had also locked down the heavily militarised Kashmir valley and placed strict curbs on movement and telecoms, snapping most mobile telephone and Internet links for weeks. Even 18 months later high-speed mobile Internet had been only partially restored, and local leaders complain about an erosion of civil rights. “I spoke about the pain and anger and frustration among the people of Jammu and Kashmir since August 2019, about how they feel humiliated,” said Mehbooba Mufti, leader of the regional People’s Democratic Party. “I said people of J&K are facing a lot of problems.” Many people in Kashmir have voiced criticism of “delimitation”, fearing it is aimed at tilting the balance of power in the region toward Hindu leaders. Nisar Ahmad, a university student in Kashmir’s main city of Srinagar, said he didn’t have high hopes from Wednesday’s meeting. “They are not going to reverse what they did,” Ahmad said.