‘BJP is addressing livelihood issues’
Interview with Kavinder Gupta, BJP leader and former Deputy Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir.
KAVINDER GUPTA, Jammu and Kashmir’s former Deputy Chief Minister, downplays the controversy over 25 lakh potential new voters in the Union Territory. He is confident that the BJP’S welfare schemes and outreach to Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes will ensure its victory in the next election, even as he skirts queries on the growing alienation in the Kashmir Valley. Excerpts from an interview.
The people of Jammu and Kashmir have been waiting endlessly for the Assembly election. When will the election be held and what are the BJP’S prospects?
The BJP is the only party with an active cadre base at every polling station. We recently identified “weak booths” within every Assembly constituency and deployed a team of 25 workers in each such booth to reinvigorate the party’s connect with the electorate. We have demographic data from every pocket of Jammu, and our contact programmes are designed in keeping with local expectations.
The delimitation of Assembly constituencies is now complete and the Election Commission is currently working on the new voter lists.
It is a comprehensive process that will include new constituencies of voters such as the West Pakistan Refugees, the Valmikis and the Gorkhas, who hitherto did not have franchise [in Assembly elections]. Earlier, regional parties such as the National Conference and the Peoples Democratic Party covertly ensured an election boycott, so that they could win taking advantage of low polling. But the BJP has successfully reversed that trend.
The Election Commission’s statement on adding 25 lakh new voters to the rolls has stirred up a hornet’s nest. The PAGD has accused the Narendra Modi government of trying to inundate Jammu and Kashmir with non-local voters.
How is it rational or democratic to deny anyone the right to vote if one has been living in a State for years and decades? There is a stated criterion to acquire voting right from a given State or region, and this right is made use of by people as per their own wish.
The government doesn’t force individuals to register as voters from a place of its choice. There is a sizeable population of the armed forces’ families living in Jammu and Kashmir.
How can we deny them the right to vote when their kin are tirelessly working to protect our frontiers?
The entire controversy surrounding the addition of 25 lakh voters is misleading. The last Assembly election was held in 2014. Hence there is a natural increase in the number of voters, with lakhs of under-18 children attaining adulthood. There are potential new voters from among the West Pakistani refugees and members of the Valmiki and Gorkha communities who have been extended the right to vote.
There is a perception that the BJP has a role to play in Ghulam Nabi Azad floating a new political party. The BJP stands to gain in the Chenab valley and Pir Panjal if the Muslim votes split?
The rifts within the Congress are not a secret. Ghulam Nabi Azad was pioneering the rebel G-23 faction within the Congress, and in due course he left the party. People are exiting the Congress in droves because of lack of internal democracy. There is no point in blaming the BJP for it.
While Azad’s announcement of a new party may or may not fragment the Muslim vote, it is not a new phenomenon. We have seen other political parties such as the PDP, the Peoples Conference, Apni Party emerge in the past decades, but they were the outcome of unique political circumstances. To suddenly see a machination behind Azad’s new front and link it to the BJP is not fair.
The AAP has entered Jammu and Kashmir with the twin plank of development and Hindutva. How difficult will it be for the BJP in Jammu to retain the Hindu consolidation seen in its favour in recent years?
The AAP in Jammu is an assortment of self-serving leaders from other regional parties, particularly the Panthers Party, whose electoral fortunes had sharply declined over the years. There is neither any ideological commitment nor any pro
vision for the people of Jammu and Kashmir. In any case, people can see through their political gimmicks. The AAP has hardly any takers in Jammu and Kashmir. People are steadfast supporters of the BJP.
But how will you get the numbers to form the government, especially when you have rattled major parties in Kashmir and there is little scope for an alliance?
We have given space and respect to the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes such as the Gujjars, who had been systematically ignored by the previous dispensations. We have given them nine seats, and we are hopeful they will be favourably inclined towards us. There are 43 seats in Jammu, of which around 10 are Muslim-majority. Not only will we sweep the Hindu-dominated constituencies, the Muslims of Jammu are increasingly receptive to our leaders.
Recently, a member of the ST community, Engineer Ghulam Ali Khatana, was nominated to the Rajya Sabha following the Centre’s recommendation. The perception of Muslims about the BJP is changing as there is recognition that we are empowering leaders from every community.
In Jammu where there is resentment against ending job and land exclusivity, your party’s articulation is not categorical. Do you want Jammu and Kashmir to be thrown open to everybody or do you wish to safeguard job and land exclusivity?
It is not immediately possible to allow everyone to become a domicile of J&K. There is a provision [in the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act] that only those who have lived in J&K for a minimum of 15 years will be regarded as a domicile. This preserves the local people’s basic rights.
One has to understand that the resentment in the people [of Jammu] is not over the question of who is a domicile but over the step-motherly treatment meted out to them in the past decades [by earlier State governments]. There was no investment, and consequently, no job opportunities. It will take time to redress the policy failures of 70 years, but the BJP is addressing people’s deeprooted apprehensions and livelihood issues.
For example, we regularised the pay of daily wage labourers to a minimum of Rs.9,000 a month, an issue which no erstwhile government of Jammu and Kashmir cared to address. The environment is changing; an investment of Rs.33,000 crore [for the UT] is listed already.
But there is marked alienation in Kashmir, which is an outcome of denying a democratic platform to people to express dissent. Anti-terror laws are being slapped on journalists and civil society members. Has that not impacted India’s image globally?
This is not a fair representation of things. Today, there is no stone-pelting in Kashmir, there are no Pakistani flags being unfurled, and there are no crowds rallying around terrorists’ funeral processions.
All of that has boosted India’s image and made Jammu and Kashmir a safe territory to visit. The tremendous potential for tourism in Kashmir is now being tapped, as is evident from record tourist footfall. This will lead to tremendous employment generation.
There is a significant push to infrastructure with the expansion of the national highway network. The past years have seen proliferation of two AIIMS, an IIT, IIM, medical colleges, Central universities. All of that has given hope to the people for a secure and prosperous future.
Kumar described the qualifying metric for inclusion in the voter list as “ordinarily residing” in Jammu and Kashmir. “Before abrogation of Article 370, there were many people who could not vote in the Assembly election in J&K, but now they can also become voters. For them, provisions are already there in the Representation of the People Act. A person should be ordinarily residing in the UT,” he said.
NC spokesperson Imran Dar shared with Frontline his party’s apprehension of an insidious intent to stifle the political voice of the people of Jammu and Kashmir by throwing open voting rights to non-locals. “The Election Commission needs to clearly define the term ‘ordinarily residing’. People are worried that non-locals who may proliferate into J&K now will become eligible to vote six months down the line, thus changing the dynamics of the election,” he said. Mehbooba Mufti has described the 25 lakh potential new voters as “a posse of BJP loyalists, inducted to precipitate a BJP victory in the next election”.
The Department of Information and Public Relations on August 20 dismissed these apprehensions as a “misrepresentation of facts, which is being spread by vested interests”. A DIPR communique stated: “This revision of electoral rolls will cover existing residents of the UT of J&K and increase in numbers will be of the voters who have attained the age of 18 years as on 1.10.2022 or earlier.”
The DIPR statement suggests that Hirdesh Kumar’s 25 lakh new voters referred merely to people who had attained the age of 18 since the last election. The strength of the registered electorate in the Union Territory is 76 lakh. The projections of the Registrar General of India put the total count of 18-plus population there at 98.96 lakh.
The BJP sought to play down the issue of new voters. A party spokesperson from Jammu, Rahul Sharma, told Frontline that the Narendra Modi government has extended voting rights to West Pakistani refugees and people from the Valmiki and Gorkha communities. “The abrogagressive
tion of Article 370 enabled deprived sections to avail themselves of their basic democratic right to vote. There is also a new generation of young adults. So there is nothing shady about the addition of 25 lakh voters; vested groups are playing politics as usual,” he said over telephone from Jammu.
Yet the controversy has refused to die down. Before Article 370 was abrogated on August 5, 2019, the Jammu and Kashmir Representation of the People Act, 1957, barred any individual who was not a permanent resident of the State from registration in the electoral rolls.
The Representation of the People Act of 1950 and 1951 became applicable to the erstwhile State following the abrogation of Article 370, changing the dynamics. The two Acts of 1950 and 1951 stipulate that any citizen of India who has attained the qualifying age and is “ordinarily residing” at a place is eligible to be registered in the electoral rolls of that place, if not disqualified otherwise. In Jammu and Kashmir, it has led to an overwhelming perception that non-locals would not need a domicile certificate to be eligible to vote.
WHAT IS AZAD’S GAME?
In this charged-up atmosphere, Ghulam Nabi Azad’s bid to form a new political party is being watched closely by all stakeholders. He asserted at a rally in Baramulla on September 11 that he would not “mislead
people and promise restoration of Article 370”. His critics see the statement as validating perceptions of a clandestine arrangement with the BJP. His supporters say he is only being “pragmatic and realistic”.
Azad recently undertook an energetic tour of the Chenab valley. In his public meetings and rallies at Doda, Kishtwar and Ramban districts, he harked back to his work as Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister (2005-2008). He spoke of how under his watch the road network was taken to far-flung regions, the Tulip Garden was constructed in Kashmir, a golf course came up in Jammu, and many new colleges and hospitals were established. His critics point out that he has refrained from criticising the BJP’S majoritarian agenda. Azad’s yet-to-be-announced party is not expected to register any major success in the next election. But his presence is likely to benefit the BJP by fragmenting the Muslim votes in the Chenab Valley and the Pir Panjal region. If that happens, the BJP, which is likely to do well in Jammu district and in the border districts of Kathua, Reasi, Samba and Udhampur, may well be within striking distance of power.
The BJP, however, rubbishes speculation of any tacit understanding with the former Congressman. “Ghulam Nabi Azad was pioneering the rebel G-23 faction within the Congress, and in due course he left the party. People are exiting the Congress
in droves because of lack of internal democracy. There is no point in blaming the BJP for it,” said BJP leader Kavinder Gupta, also former Deputy Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir, in an interview to Frontline.
The Resistance Front, an offshoot of the Lashkar-e-taiba and blamed for the recent killings of Kashmiri Pandits in the Valley, issued a letter describing Azad as a “political chameleon”. The letter, which went viral on social media, alleged that Azad had a closed-door meeting with Home Minister Amit Shah and National Security Adviser Ajit Doval before announcing his intention to form a new political party.
Azad’s key team members are riled by aspersions cast on his integrity as a secular leader. They point out that he has put on record that he will not join hands with the BJP, before or after elections. Speaking to Frontline, Ashwani Handa, an Azad loyalist who left the Congress recently, said: “Azad is the tallest politician in the [erstwhile] State with vast experience as a Union Minister and Chief Minister. His acceptability cuts across region and religion. The rival parties are perturbed and are trying to malign him.”
About Azad’s remark on Article 370, he said: “Azad has always said that the BJP did the biggest betrayal of the State by snatching from its people exclusivity in land and job rights. When he says that he will not promise restoration of Article 370, he is only trying to underscore that the majority needed to do so in Parliament is not with the opposition at present nor is it foreseeable any time soon.”
But such clarifications are unlikely to make a difference to public perceptions and sentiments. The Congress is in disarray after Azad’s exit, and nobody is ready to bet on the PAGD’S sustainability.
These developments have come at a time when the BJP is honing up its election machinery in the Jammu region and readying a band of proxies to usurp space in the Kashmir Valley. m