Elections in Jammu and Kashmir are missing the captivating road maps and slogans for resolving the Kashmir issue that had defined the politics of the local mainstream parties for generations. And nobody is batting an eyelid.

While the abrogation of Article 370 has pushed the supposedly invincible separatist constituency to the wall, it has robbed the National Conference, People’s Democratic Party and People’s Conference of their trademark formulas of internal autonomy, self-rule and “achievable nationhood” for Jammu and Kashmir.

The irony is that one or the other of these parties might win all three Valley seats without relying on the old slogans but in a new avatar. Sensing defeat, the BJP has chosen not to fight.

The National Conference and the PDP now talk of the restoration of Article 370 only in hushed voices. Mostly, they use grand language about preventing an “onslaught” on the “collective identity, land, jobs or resources” of Kashmiris, or about restoring the “dignity and honour of the people” — euphemisms for restoring the special status.

The People’s Conference, whose formula was only a step short of azadi but which is now dubbed the BJP’s “B-team”, has lowered the bar further. It believes the National Conference and the PDP are fooling people when they talk about the restoration of
Article 370. The party seems ready to settle for much less, such as the restoration
of statehood.

“They have all dumped their slogans; they have changed the goalposts,” a former journalist who shifted to his family business following the crackdown on dissent in the wake of the 2019 changes told The Telegraph.

“Perhaps they know they can no longer take people for a ride with such slogans. The tragedy is, they (the new agendas) have many takers given the changed circumstances (with escaping the Centre’s wrath having become a priority).”

He added: “What I see is that they cannot espouse even their new goals freely. What you see them doing is attack each other for their past or present links with the BJP. They are waging personal attacks on each other — which did not happen in the past — to prove the other side is outside the pale of Islam.”

National Conference vice-president Omar Abdullah, PDP president Mehbooba Mufti and People’s Conference president Sajad Lone are in the fray. But not one has made even a passing reference to the maximalist slogans they once championed — a grim
reminder of how they have buckled before the BJP’s muscular policies.

Omar and Sajad are pitted against each other in Baramulla. Mehbooba is contesting from Anantnag-Rajouri, where she faces National Conference stalwart Mian Altaf. Srinagar will witness a contest between the National Conference’s Agha Ruhullah and the PDP’s Waheed Parra.

“There wasn’t any election when they would not rake up these (old) slogans,” the former journalist said.

“In my childhood days, I grew up hearing slogans with catchy beats, like ‘Alibain hali kari Congress chali kari (The plough will strike, tear up the Congress)’. These were the days when the Congress was the enemy.”

That slogan marked the National Conference’s rallying cry for the restoration of internal autonomy, which entailed Jammu and Kashmir’s return to its pre-1953 status when its leaders enjoyed the titles of prime minister and Sadr-e-Riyasat (president of the state). The National Conference was at the vanguard of the Kashmiris’ sub-nationalist aspirations.

Farooq Abdullah’s National Conference government even passed an autonomy resolution in the Assembly on June 26, 2000, with a two-thirds majority. But it was rejected outright by the then Atal Bihari Vajpayee government.

The resolution sought complete autonomy on all issues except defence, foreign policy, currency and communications. The party never stopped making it an electoral issue following the Centre’s snub.

In 2017, Omar famously said that if seeking autonomy for the state was “anti-national”, he was proud to be one.

The PDP, after its founding by Mufti Mohammad Sayeed in 1999, had gone a step further as it jostled for political space with the National Conference.

It pursued a soft separatist agenda and sought self-rule, borrowing from the solution proposed by then Pakistan President Parvez Musharraf. This entailed the maximum autonomy for Jammu and Kashmir, dual currency (Indian and Pakistani) and a joint legislative council for the two parts of Kashmir (J&K and PoK).

Sajad Lone’s “vision document” for “achievable nationhood” called for the creation
of two semi-independent states in the two parts of Kashmir.

Sajad released the document in 2007, while he was a separatist, and continued to espouse it after he formally joined the pro-India bandwagon in 2009. He has stopped talking about it for a few years now.

The document suggested the replication of the Hong Kong model — a state with “attributes of an independent country” while China had a limited role “even in defence”.

“There would be a system of shared sovereignty. Except for foreign affairs and defence, which are responsibilities of the State of India, the state would be vested with executive, legislative and independent judicial powers, including final adjudication and full economic sovereignty,” it read.

Sajad still seeks to restore the “region’s glory” and “voice the aspirations of people in Parliament”, but these seem to be in line with the realities of New Kashmir.

“There is a lot of pain, agony and suffering among the people, and only those who understand it can truly speak up for them in Parliament,” he told workers in Baramulla last week.

The National Conference’s provincial president, Nasir Aslam Wani, said the party would continue to fight for the restoration of what was lost in 2019, including Article 370.

“We have not given up on the larger goal (of internal autonomy) and are focusing
on the immediate goal (restoring Article 370),” he told this newspaper.

“Obviously, things have changed after 2019. It took the BJP 60 years to achieve its goal (of scrapping Article 370). We hope that one day there will be a party that will return all these things to us.”

PDP insiders took a similar line but a People’s Conference leader said the new ground realities could not be brushed aside.

Omar and Mehbooba — both former chief ministers — and Sajad, a minister in the erstwhile PDP-BJP government, were all jailed for months following the scrapping of the special status.

Sajad is believed to have played a key role in the formation of the Gupkar Alliance, which seeks the restoration of Article 370, before he dumped it in 2021. The National Conference and the PDP are part of the alliance, which exists only in name as they are fighting against each other in all three seats.

The three Kashmir seats vote on May 13, 20 and 25