An outcry has forced the Jammu administration to withdraw its controversial order facilitating voting rights for outsiders, earning the BJP a backlash from the Right-wing ecosystem for the “U-turn” and offering a sense of victory to local people and political parties.
Jammu deputy commissioner Anvy Lavasa had issued a first-of-its-kind order on Tuesday night authorising revenue officials to issue “certificates of residence” to non-local people living in their areas for more than a year to facilitate their inclusion in the voter list.
Senior officials confirmed to The Telegraph that the order had been withdrawn on Wednesday night but gave no reason. Sources said that opposition from residents of both Jammu as well as Kashmir had led to the withdrawal.
CPM veteran Mohammed Yousuf Tarigami, spokesperson for the alliance fighting for full restoration of Article 370, said the order’s withdrawal had demonstrated that even the most authoritarian regimes can be forced to retreat if people speak out together.
“All parties, irrespective of their affiliations and across regions, showed exemplary unity and forced the government to withdraw the order,” he told this newspaper.
The BJP had been the only major political party to support the order. The order’s withdrawal has now earned it censure from those who had stoutly supported Jammu and Kashmir’s “full integration” with the rest of the country.
Hari Om, former head of the history department at Jammu University who is known for his Right-wing views, tweeted: “Chicken-hearted J&K Govt kneels, withdraws… order under which those living in Jammu for more than one year could register themselves as voters in J&K.
“Anti-India elements in J&K term the withdrawal as their victory. The U-turn will only embolden anti-national forces in J&K.”
CPM leader Tarigami said that Wednesday’s order — and previous announcements including the chief electoral officer’s declaration in August that 25 lakh new voters including outsiders would be enlisted as voters — were “deliberate exercises” to test the waters in Jammu and Kashmir.
Many in Kashmir believe that the BJP-led central government plans to change Jammu and Kashmir’s Muslim-majority demography, and view Tuesday’s order as a step towards that goal.
Further, the order being issued in Jammu district, heartland of the Hindu Dogras, had caused apprehension among the Dogras that they might have to bear the brunt of the change. The Dogras had cheered the 2019 cancellation of Jammu and Kashmir’s special status, which gave exclusive rights to local people over land and jobs.
BJP spokesperson R.S. Pathania said Lavasa’s order had been “uncalled for” as the law of the land gave all non-local people the right to vote in Jammu and Kashmir under certain conditions, anyway.
“Sections 1 and 2 of the Representation of the People Act (of 1950) states that people aged 18 or above and ordinarily residing in any constituency shall be entitled to be registered on the electoral rolls for that constituency,” he said.
This provision of the 1950 law became applicable to Jammu and Kashmir after the scrapping of the special status in 2019 — till when outsiders could vote for parliamentary elections from the erstwhile state but not in Assembly or local polls.
However, for non-local people, this newfound eligibility to vote had come up against hurdles on the ground from local officials, who made it difficult for them to get registered as voters.
