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| Only 8% KPs vote, none in Delhi | | |
Sandeep Bhat
Jammu, 7th May: Kashmiri Pandits (KP) has once again shown cold response to the ongoing elections in the state. Out of 12040 votes of which M-forms were received by the electioneering agencies only 964 votes were polled at 13 polling booths in Jammu and Udhampur, while out of 922 votes only 60 votes were polled. In total only 8% and 6.5% voter turn out was recorded for Srinagar-Budgam Parliamentary constituency and Sonawar Assembly bi-elections respectively. Steady polling was witnessed in all the 13 polling stations set up for Kashmiri Pandit migrant voters registered for the Srinagar Parliamentary constituency is the Jammu and Udhampur districts. A couple, Sunil and Jyoti were among the first to cast their vote at University Complex, Udeywala polling station. When asked about their early start, their honesty reply was that it was better to vote in the morning when mercury level is comparatively down. At a polling station set up in Agricultural Complex, Tallab Tillo, 17 votes were polled till 11:30 a.m. Raja Ji was the first to cast his vote while 80 year old Nand Lal was among the early voters at the polling station. First timer, Shivani Bhat, proudly displaying her indelible ink after casting vote at Panchayat Ghar, Barnai poling station said, “Youth are the engineers of change and I am happy to be a part of the exercise that brings about that change. A handicapped girl Anjali, 20, was among the 50 electors who had cast her vote at polling booth at Muthi. While talking to early Times Assistant Returning Officer (ARO) Harcharan Singh informed that polling remained peaceful and no untoward incident was reported till the polling was over on 5PM.
Convenor Panun Kashmir Agnishekhar while terming the electioneering process as futile exercise said Election Commission of India (ECI) is toying with the fundamental rights of the KPs in exile. He said that earlier ECI make it difficult process as filling of M-forms is lengthy and hectic result of which KPs restricted taking part in elections.
“We have been deprived for our fundamental rights by successive state and the central governments and we have lost faith in electoral process as more than 90% Parliamentarians are with criminal backgrounds” said Bal Krishen Raina of Muthi. He added that going out to vote is wasting a holiday.
President All India Kashmiri Samaj (AIKS) Moti Kaul said that until separate political space is being provided to community, taking part in election is all in-vain. He added that whosoever comes in the power in centre AIKS will fight for the cause vigorously.
Sources revealed that KPs in Delhi have given a boycott call and remained off from the polling booths. Unhappy at being classified as “migrants”, the Kashmiri Pandits, who were forced to leave their homes in the Kashmir Valley, boycotted elections. “I did no vote in protest. This is a kind of discrimination. We are not migrants. Migrants are those who moved out of the valley on their own will. It was a forced exodus. Even the UN calls us internally displaced person, “ Aditya Raj Kaul, a Kashmiri activist, said. “We should have normal voter ID cards like every other Indian. Moreover, except for Jammu and Delhi, Kashmiri Pandits cannot vote anywhere else. Don’t the Kashmiris settled elsewhere in India have voting rights?” Kaul asked.
The sentiments were echoed by Rashneek Kher “Kashmiri Pandits are spread across the country but I think not more than 25,000 would have access to voting. Also the requirement of ‘M’ form is 100 percent discriminatory. I am as much an Indian as anybody else.
Ghulam Qadir Bawa the ARO for Kashmiri Pandits in Delhi said to a news agency that “We have advertised in the newspapers asking the Kashmiri Pandits to fill up the ‘M’ form, but nobody has responded. Though we had made arrangement for voting for Kashmiri Pandits at four places in Delhi but no one has voted.
It is pertinent to mention here that the number of eligible voters in the community has dropped considerably from the voter list of Jammu and Kashmir state for the past 12 years. In 1996 there were 147,000 voters but the figure went down to 1,17,000 in 2002 and further to 71,000 during last year’s assembly polls.
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