Interim Report of the Fourth Phase
J&K State Assembly elections - 8th October 2002
J&K Coalition of Civil Society
As members of the Independent Observers Group, organized by the civil society coalition, we were to observe the conduct of the elections for the J&K State Legislative Assembly. The group's terms of reference were: -
1. Use of coercion (either to participate or abstain from elections)
2. Interaction with electorate to find out why they participated or abstained
In this endeavour we formed joint teams comprising of people from Jammu and Kashmir and different parts of India for four major regions of the Doda district. The chosen constituencies included Banihal, Doda, Baderwah and Kishtwar. While our final report with complete documentary evidence would be made available at the earliest, we are releasing an Interim Report of the Fourth Phase.
There are some basic facts about Doda, which leads to the 'hyper-sensitivity' of the district of Doda and an analysis of the same is very necessary to understand the context in which elections took place in the district. Doda unlike the Kashmir valley is a highly mountainous region. Ninety percent of the population lives in the rural areas. Approximately, one lakh military and Para military forces, including Rashtriya Riffles, Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), Jammu and Kashmir Light Infantry (JKLI), Border Security Forces (BSF). Moreover 20,000 state police force have been deployed in the district. This is in addition to the approximately 10,000 Village Defence Committees (VDC) / Special Police Officers (SPO's), which exist in 31 Pathwar Halkas. Every Village Committee has merely 8 persons recruited. The voluminous presence of militant groups in the district too is reported to be higher than in either Jammu region or Kashmir valley.
The elections took place in the midst of high security arrangements. But the threat of some attacks was evident in the region on the eve of the elections. Hence in many areas the fear of either of the gun was very evident and in many interior/rural areas of the district, the stronger gun became the deciding factor.
In an interesting contrast to the elections in the Kashmir valley, where urban voters generally boycotted the elections and rural population participate to vote due to several reasons, many areas of Doda witnessed the urban populace willingly and actively participating in the elections and rural areas not showing up for voting - except in areas where the security forces allegedly forced them to.
Banihal Constituency - The team visited far-flung areas of the Banihal constituency, situated in Doda district. Unlike in many other areas of Doda particularly the towns where coercion was not visible, it was used as a policy to defeat the boycott by the people in Banihal, the better exception being the town areas.
Ashar, Banihal - The team reached the area at 10:50 am, after receiving information about army coercion in the area. The team was told that R.R personnel had visited the area in the morning hours to compel people to cast their votes. On reaching the village, the team saw 17 RR personnel deployed in the area inside the residential locality, walking along with voters of the village towards the polling booth. On seeing the team, the army personnel started moving off and disappearing from the vicinity. But the team did manage to follow one such jawan who tried to hide himself inside a rice husker. An argument about the army herding people to the polling station was made with the soldier who was very furious with the members.
Later after visiting the polling booths in nearby areas, the reason for the army's involvement was clearer. There were 4 votes cast in polling booth No. 5 out of 527 at 11:20 am and at Booth No. 6, the votes cast was 22 out of the 613 total.
Duligam, Banihal - Around 30 people, who were seen sitting on the road guarded by two army persons (opposite the polling booth at a lower plain), complained to the team in their presence that they were being herded there by the army team, who had left them at the road, and had gone to collect the remaining villagers. These people had resisted to vote until the whole village was not brought to the place were they were seated. The people were open in their resolve to support only a "referendum" and not any elections for the administrative purpose.
In the meantime, many other villagers were brought to the area by army personnel. Children and the old were seen together with this crowd, which featured even the semi-blind Imam of the local mosque - aged 85.When on enquiring from the R.R. regarding the alleged coercion, the RR personnel retorted by refuting the allegations made by the villagers. They also send a word of caution to the Commanding Officer of the area regarding the teams' visit, which later stopped the team on their way back and insisted the team members to accompany him to verify the allegations.
The need for this kind of coercion can be understood from the fact that at 1:15 pm, there were no votes cast in the nearby poling station (polling booth No. 12), where there were 1253 voters as per the rolls.
Doda constituency - The elections started with the attack of militant groups on the polling booth No. 4 situated inside the Town Hall at Doda in the heart of the town. Three people were killed in the attack including two CRPF soldiers and a militant. It was generally perceived as an attempt to make sure a lesser voter turnout in the city areas of Doda and need to be understood as a mode of coercion. This pattern was seen again in two other polling booths of Babore and Hanch were there were grenade attacks (without casualities) were reported by the people.
There were many reasons cited by those participated in the elections, including the anti-trifurcation wave, which was present throughout among the minority and majority voters from the areas visited by the team. Local issues as well as the family affiliations to the local candidates too were cited. In the otherwise secular and communally friendly areas of Doda, political competition between the two communities was evident, leading to large voter turnout.
Roti Padarnah, Doda - Leaving beside the city polling booths where voter turnout was willing and active, the interior areas of Doda did bear the grunt of the armed forces' might and thus coercion. This village situated almost five kilometers away from any main road (the polling booth No. 28 was on a hill-top needing three kilometers of trekking) had 13 people casting their votes till 12:30 p.m. and in the next two hours the numbers had gone up to 283 out of the 928 total voters- with many more awaiting their chance. On talking to the people, the team was made to understand that the CRPF force, which had the security charge of the area during the elections, had gone to the nearby villages (Roti padarnah, Taishal, Chapna, Shirshi, etc) and had herded people to the polling booth. The illiterate villagers did not even know the candidates or their symbols to cast their vote. Those who gave the team narrative evidence of the coercion included the Presiding officer from Jammu as well.
Posta, Doda constituency - In Posta village, the CRPF personnel went into the village at around 12:45 pm and gathered people, including those working in the fields and forced them to go to the polling booth (almost 3.5 km up from the village). The villagers later told the team that they did not want to cast their votes as elections were no solution to their issues. They also added that in normal circumstances, there was no security provided to them by any of the security forces and that there was a ban imposed by militant groups on voting.
Babore, Doda constituency - In this urban polling booth (PB No.26), people were participating in large numbers and by 11:55 am, there were 250 votes cast out of the 864 total number of voters. But minors' voting (the team spoke to one of the minor voters - a girl of fourteen) and the presiding officer's enthusiasm to lead people (especially illiterate women voters) by their fingers to press the button of the voting machine did put shadow over the fairness aspect of the election. Photographs available with the team can very well illustrate how women were made to press the same button in as many as 20 consecutive cases. The presiding officer was from the Rajouri district.
Baderwah constituency - In Baderwah there was willful participation of the voters, in urban areas. The team visited Banzla 8 km from Baderwah, starting polling booth number 44. Baderwah constituency has 107 polling stations out of which 17 polling booths were located in towns and 90 in remote areas. Amongst 107 polling booths 55 were described as hypersensitive and 52 sensitive by the Election Commission. The team visited the polling booths no 34 at Baderwah Degree College, Govt. Girls Schools Sartingal (PB. no. 44), Govt. Girls Schools Masjid Mohalla (booth no 40), Thara Mohalla (booth no 36) Havelli (PB. no 39), Town Hall (PB. no. 38), Qilla Mohal, Ydrana and Shiva (PB. no 58). The people from both the communities were participated in elections with enthusiasm and without any coercion. The members of the majority community stated that they were voting for developmental and civic issues and they are conscious it is no solution to the Kashmir issue.
The members of Majority community apprehended fears about the outcome if only the minority community was to participate in the elections. The competition between the two communities for voting and to elect their respective representative was visible. However, at two places in Baderwah at Mathala Baderwah where one person was killed people abstain from voting. At Marmat where security forces had reportedly burnt 120 houses on 20th of August and a section of people had migrated, they were threatened to vote or face consequences. The team also came across allegations of rigging due to non-participation of the considerable number of people, who have boycotted the polls. One family claimed that they have 500 votes in their clan and alleged that though all of them abstained from voting, their votes were polled.
As stated earlier, the incidents we are quoting in the Interim Reports are only sample ones among the many similar instances the CCS teams have come across. In this phase, due to the geographic range of the Doda district, our teams were able to visit only four out of the six constituencies, which went to polls on the 8th of October 2002. We couldn't cover the Lolab constituency of Kupwara District were postponed elections were taking place along with the rest of the fourth phase.
On Behalf of the Civil Society Coalition,
Adv. Mir Hafizullah
(Gen.Secy, J&K CCS)
Phone: (0194)-456381Vijayan MJ
(Convener, CSI- India)
Ph: (011) - 6561743 / 651484