Why the election noise in Kashmir is a symptom of democratic deep freeze

On the face of it, Kashmir is buzzing with electoral activity as it goes into assembly polls in three phases, beginning from Wednesday. Political constituencies that last took part in elections in 1987 are now back in the fray. In the dramatis personae for these polls – former members of the banned Jamaat-e-Islami Jammu and Kashmir, sons of separatist Hurriyat leaders, a jailed cleric known as “Azadi Chacha” after he helped galvanise the 2016 protests in Kashmir, the brother of Afzal Guru, hanged for his involvement in the Parliament attack of 2001.

The assembly elections of 1987, widely believed to be rigged, are said to be the tipping point for militancy in Kashmir. It prompted an exodus from the electoral mainstream in Kashmir and a disillusionment with democratic processes. Now, the same constituencies that called for poll boycotts through decades of militancy have returned to the electoral fold.

But this sudden flurry of activity may not mean a democratic reawakening in Kashmir. The return of dissidents may not be proof of the capaciousness of the electoral fold to include all kinds of political ideas. It may, instead, be a symptom of the democratic freeze that has taken hold of Kashmir since August 5, 2019, when it...

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