A farcical exercise in J&K

In J&K, where polling for the first of four phases of local bodies’ election was held Monday, the security, political and ideological challenge for the Indian State lies only in the Valley. So it won’t do to uncritically cite high polling data in the Jammu and Ladakh regions as success. In the Valley, only around eight per cent votes were cast.

Seen in isolation, this figure is abysmal. But it’s no worse than statistics of byelections and some other polls held in the Valley. Nor is it much worse than some data from Assembly polls in Punjab during the militancy in that state.

But it’s hard to escape the inference that what we’ve just seen in the Valley was a psychedelic election, signifying a thoroughly hallucinatory electoral process. For 167 of 598 municipal wards that make up 40 municipalities, not a single candidate filed a nomination. A lone candidate was in the fray in 244 wards, and declared elected without contest. No election was thus held in 63 per cent of seats. The whole process was conducted in utmost secrecy. The names of candidates or their parties weren’t allowed to be known.

Those who filed nominations did so under heavy guard and many were later removed to safe locations. They were given anonymous nomination numbers. It’s in this Orwellian scenario that the BJP is likely to emerge victorious in some 60 per cent of wards for which its nominees came forward.

Unlike in Punjab in the past and some low-polling elections in the Valley earlier, the present exercise will not open up the democratic process. It simply stinks.