Jammu and Kashmir National Conference (JKNC) party leader Omar Abdullah celebrates his victory in the local elections in Kashmir, October 8, 2024. DAR YASIN / AP Celebrations broke out on Tuesday, October 8, late morning, in many places of Kashmir when the defeat of the party of Narendra Modi was taken for granted. Activists of the National Conference, the region’s oldest political party, burst firecrackers and shared sweets outside their party offices, including in the capital, Srinagar, as the election results were announced regional. According to the first results, they would obtain 47 seats, against 27 for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the Prime Minister’s party. Nearly 9 million Kashmiris were called to the polls from September 18 to October 1, for the first time in ten years, to elect their representatives to the Jammu and Kashmir assembly. They clearly defied the Indian Prime Minister who, on August 5, 2019, had suddenly decided to abolish Article 370 of the Constitution, granting the only region of India with a Muslim majority broad autonomy and limiting the intervention of New Delhi to the defense or communications sectors. Narendra Modi had also abolished Article 35 A of the Constitution, banning property ownership by non-Kashmiris. This coup was the founding act of his second mandate. The regional Parliament had been dissolved, all democratically elected leaders arrested, as well as thousands of people, journalists, rights defenders, ordinary citizens. The region was cut off from the world for months, without any communication. Foreign journalists remain banned there. Kashmir was downgraded from a state with broad powers to a union territory administered by Delhi. It was split into two, Jammu and Kashmir on one side, and Ladakh on the other. Read also | Article reserved for our subscribers The political influence of Hindu nationalism Add to your selections This operation, which is on the agenda of supporters of Hindutva, the Hindu far right, had no other goal than to marginalize Muslims , to deprive them of their representations and to attempt to Hinduize this region, by modifying its demographic composition. A governor under orders from Delhi The National Conference, led by the Abdullah family, allied with the Congress Party, should form the new government. Its representative, Omar Abdullah, ran for office with the main objective of reversing the political and constitutional changes that took place after the revocation of its autonomy. Will he have the means? The regional government has lost most of its powers, subject to a governor under orders from Delhi. The lieutenant governor has a veto power allowing him to reject laws or oppose regional government appointments. He has the final say on key administrative and legal issues, including assignments and prosecutions of officers accused of corruption and other malfeasance. But the government, even weakened, will have legitimacy. You have 43.12% of this article left to read. The rest is reserved for subscribers.
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