Opinion: DDC polls – a paradigm shift in Kashmir

Arun Joshi A paradigm shift is taking place in Kashmir where seeds of grassroots democracy have started sprouting like never before. The driving factor is the ongoing District Development Council polls which are being held for the first time in Jammu and Kashmir, more importantly, these elections will bring the Himalayan territory into the overarching fold of the Indian democracy.
The polling for the eight-phase elections is going on. This had started on November 28 and will last till December 19, and the counting will take place on December 22.
This election is beyond the technical details of 72 lakh electorate in 280 constituencies across 20 districts of the Union Territory of J&K – it is about the firming up of the grassroots democracy in the Himalayan territory where until now flavour of the democracy was tasted in the Assembly and Parliamentary elections, and panchayat and municipal polls were held as per the whims of the state governments – J&K was a special status state until August 5, 2019. Till that day, its special status granted special rights to its permanent residents and it flaunted its especial identity through a separate flag and constitution.
In a significant way, the Centre has proved that it is committed to widening the arch of democracy in Kashmir, short term for J&K. There is no doubt that J&K had elections in the past, but those were marred by the charges of rigging  and manipulation by the governments  as also by the repeated boycott calls by the separatists, which were executed by militants through guns and grenades to keep voters indoors.
It won’t be wrong to say that there was a democratic deficit in Jammu and Kashmir – first elections to all institutions were not held as per the normal schedule. In 2011, panchayat elections were held after a gap of 10 years, and before that these polls remained off schedule for more than 20 years because of the militancy related violence. The fear of violence was so overwhelming that the Centre could not hold even the 1991 parliamentary elections. And the Assembly elections could not be held for almost seven years after the Congress-National Conference government that resigned in January 1990.
Prime Minster Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah – the ministry of home affairs control all affairs of J&K – have moved firmly in removing this democratic deficiency by getting all layers of democracy in place.