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Caricature Elections
Jagmohan Singh
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Irrespective of the euphoria over the ‘massive turnout’ in the
first of the seven-phase election process in the disputed
Kashmir region, Jagmohan Singh writes an Open Letter to the
chairperson of the All Party Hurriyat Conference denouncing the
use of brute force, enforced detentions, endorsing the right to
not to vote of the Kashmiri people and questions the silence of
the international community for watching the sham proceedings
from the sidelines. |
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 Dear
Janab Mirwaiz Umar Farooq
Aadab
In these
difficult times, please accept my greetings in the name of God, the
light of every soul.
The grit and
determination of all members of the All Party Hurriyat Conference in
negating the foisted election process on the people of Kashmir may
appear to some as waywardness and cowardice to face the truth and
some may allege that you do not have a better understanding of the
situation of your own people, nevertheless you and all other
Kashmiri nationalist leaders deserve to be congratulated for your
stand and steadfastness.
I believe that
political analysts have yet to fathom the seriousness of your
conviction to uphold the right not to vote. Very few thinkers and
political players have tried to gauge your perception that the
elections would not be a source of peaceful change but a cause of
serious instability.
Superficially,
the Indian Election Commission would perhaps be as elated after the
first round as it would be later. The Election Commission has no
qualms particularly in areas which require conflict resolution. In
Punjab
it cancelled elections at the eleventh hour in 1991. In 1992, it
foisted the Beant Singh government with 8 percent votes. Presently
in
Kashmir, it has unabashedly offered unprecedented sops to election
staff from other states and is holding elections under the bayonet
of nearly one million troops. There are more troops than voters.
The Indian
government and the Indian Election Commission send its observers to
monitor elections in SAARC nations, but shies away from having
independent observers in
Kashmir.
You have rightly
pointed out that one election after another without accepting the
right to self-determination of the people of
Kashmir has only
worsened the situation.
Substantive
democracy means elections with choice otherwise it would be
caricature elections and only a façade of democracy. By not
allowing you and other leaders to openly and freely propagate the
right not to vote, the Indian state has reinforced its iron-curtain
policy and is conducting election proceedings with pre-conceived
notions, well-planned security machinery and with the use of threat
of the security forces. Like the former Soviet states,
India continues
to use an electoral veneer to maintain its stranglehold over Kashmir
against the wishes of the people.
If
India is so
convinced that people have participated fully in the electoral
process and ‘rejected’ the call of boycott, you should ask
India
to conduct a referendum, and I am convinced that even if they do
this under the bayonet of the Indian armed forces and their brute
laws, Kashmiris will deliver a clear verdict.
India will have to answer the following questions posed at various
times by you and your colleagues:
How many leaders are in jail?
How many activists are in jail?
How many troops are in the field?
How many people have been killed in the last two decades?
How many have been tortured?
How many are missing?
What kind of laws governs
Kashmir today?
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I can only reiterate by citing the 1951 proceedings. The
question of Elections in Kashmir and Self-Determination was
settled by the United Nations in March 1951 with the resolve
that “the final disposition of the State of Jammu and Kashmir
will be made in accordance with the will of the people expressed
through the democratic method of a free and impartial plebiscite
conducted under the auspices of the United Nations”. |
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What is the meaning of elections to the families of more than a
hundred thousand people who have been killed in the last two
decades? What do elections mean to these people and their families?
Does it matter?
You are reported
to have said, “Elections can never be a solution to the issue of
Kashmir.
They can never be a substitute for our right to self-determination.
Our fight for
freedom will continue. Lakhs of people taking to roads and demanding
right to self-determination should have served as an eye-opener for
India,
but it has once again ignored the aspirations of the Kashmiris and
imposed elections on them.”
I
can only reiterate what
India and the United concluded in 1951. The question of Elections
in
Kashmir
and Self-Determination has been settled by the United Nations in
March 1951. It was resolved that, “the final disposition of the
State of Jammu and Kashmir will be made in accordance with the will
of the people expressed through the democratic method of a free and
impartial plebiscite conducted under the auspices of the United
Nations”.
Those who
rejoice today at the electoral turnout do not realize the warning of
your co-traveller veteran leader Syed Geelani who said that “It is a
shame for Government of India to conduct polls in presence of its
eight lakh troops.”
The last
election in Kashmir was marred by, “Large scale rigging, booth
capturing, forcibly herding the unwilling voters by the security
forces to the deserted polling booths to stamp their ballots in
favour of the ruling party candidates, impersonation, bogus polling
and blatant misuse of official machinery with the Election
Commission watching as idle spectator, if not actually encouraging
this electoral farce, have once again exposed the democratic
credentials of Indian state. Such rigging could not have been
possible without official connivance and covert, if not overt,
approval of the Election Commission,” as commented by Kashmir
Times. Will it be any different this time?
The
international community which has a dichotomous stand on Kashmir
needs to introspect. Why does it not criticize the government of
India for not allowing Amnesty International into Kashmir? Why does
the UN not reprimand India for not allowing the Special Rapporteur
on Torture to visit the Kashmir Valley ? How does the government
justify holding elections in a ‘disturbed area’?
In many
countries of the world, freedom fighters have boycotted elections
–in El Salvador, Guatemala and Chile and even if they had not; let
me say that you are fully justified in your campaign.
In the United
Kingdom democracy dawned after the acceptance of the Magna Carta.
In the US, the Declaration of Independence was signed in 1776, the
Constitution was adopted in 1777 and the electoral process started
thereafter. The Soviet state would not have crumbled had the people
enjoyed fundamental rights, human rights, backed by independent
judiciary, free and fair elections. Has democracy not followed the
admission of the rights of a people? What would elections mean to
the Palestinians in the occupied strips of Gaza and the West Bank?
When Simranjit
Singh Mann boycotted elections in 1992, he wrote, “No people can be
governed against their will. No people can be hammered into
silence. Totalitarianism must end. Territorial integrity is not
absolute. When human dignity and equal and inalienable rights of
peoples, as enshrined in the Universal declaration of Human Rights
are endangered then geographical boundaries and patriotic
sensitivities must take a backseat. All historic wrongs have to be
corrected.”
I join you in
asking the international community and particularly the United
Nations which would be celebrating the 60th Year of the
UN Declaration of Human Rights by asking, “When will the cries of
the Kashmiri people be heard?
With hope and
faith in your own self, in your colleagues and in your people and
keeping the fighting spirit alive for liberty has to be fought for,
I wish you success in your life mission.
Yours
fraternally
Jagmohan Singh
Jagmohan Singh
is a human rights activist based in Ludhiana. He may be contacted at
jsbigideas@gmail.com
19 November
2008
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