Revision as of 12:38, 2 August 2024

Elections

Turnout of voters

2024

Dipak Dash & Saleem Pandit TNN, May 21, 2024: The Times of India

Turn out of voters in the Baramulla parliamentary constituency, 1984 – 2024
From: Dipak Dash & Saleem Pandit TNN, May 21, 2024: The Times of India

New Delhi/Srinagar : Baramulla parliamentary constituency in Jammu and Kashmir recorded 57.4% polling at 11.45pm on Monday in the fifth phase of Lok Sabha elections, which is the highest since 1984, both in polling percentage and absolute numbers terms.

The highest-ever polling in LS elections in Baramulla was 61.1% in 1984. The region was in grip of insurgency since 1989 when voting touched an all-time low of 5.5%. North Kashmir was a stronghold of terrorists in the early 1990s.


In the last phase, Srinagar had recorded 38.5% voting, the highest since 1996, an indication of greater participation of people from the Valley in the 2024 election.


Thanking voters of J&K for exercising their right in large numbers, chief election commissioner Rajiv Kumar told TOI, “People in large numbers are staking claim in democratic governance in the UT and the panel is encouraged to go for assembly elections in the UT at the earliest.”


Though there are 22 candidates in the fray in Baramulla, the contest is mainly among three — former CM and National Conference vice-president Omar Abdul- lah, Sajad Lone of People’s Conference and Sheikh Rashid Ahmad of Awami Ittehad party, popularly known as Engineer Rashid.

YEAR-WISE DEVELOPMENTS

2024

Kin of top separatists publicly vow loyalty to India

Saleem Pandit, March 22, 2024: The Times of India

Srinagar: An ideological generation gap in two prominent pro-Pakistan separatist families of J&K exploded in public after the granddaughter of late Hurriyat patriarch Syed Ali Shah Geelani and the elder daughter of jailed Democratic Freedom Party founder Shabir Shah put out newspaper ads distancing themselves from the “anti-India” narrative.


“I am a loyal citizen of India not affiliated with any organisation or association which has an agenda against Union of India... I owe my allegiance to the Constitution of my country,” said Geelani’s granddaughter Ruwa Shah.
Shah’s daughter Sama Shabir made a similar announcement through an ad in another daily. “I am not associated with the DFP or its ideology in any way,” she said, warning of legal action against anyone linking her to the separatist outfit.


The curious case of both the scions making identical declarations of “allegiance” to India on the same day could be more than just a coincidence. Ruwa and Sama have both had their Indian passports impounded for undisclosed reasons, sources said.


Sama, studying law at a British university, recently received an ED summons in a money laundering case involving her father. The agency had previously summoned her in 2019, soon after she moved to Manchester for her education.


Her mother Dr Bilquis Shah, a govt employee posted in a state-run Srinagar hospital for over a decade, is a co-accused in the case. ED named her in a supplementary chargesheet filed in 2020 after one of those arrested in the case, Aslam Wani, told investigators that he handed laundered cash to Bilquis and her husband on multiple occasions.


Ruwa’s father, Altaf Shah, was a close ideological aide of his father-in-law Geelani until his arrest on charges of terror funding. In 2017, NIA put him in Tihar jail. He died of cancer in October 2021.


Ruwa started her career as a Saudi Airlines crew member before taking a break to study journalism in Delhi. In 2020, she went to Istanbul on a scholarship given by Turkish govt and soon started the alleged anti-India propaganda through her “Ruwa Shah Show” on local television.


Geelani’s granddaughter, meanwhile. returned to India after her father died in Oct 2021.

Army cancels UCC seminar at Kashmir University

Saleem Pandit, March 24, 2024: The Times of India

Srinagar: Army cancelled a seminar on Uniform Civil Code (UCC) at Kashmir University, citing enforcement of model code of conduct for parliamentary elections.


The move, however, followed a backlash from Jammu and Kashmir politicians, including former chief ministers Omar Abdullah and Mehbooba Mufti, who questioned propriety of Army holding such a ‘political seminar’. 
Lt Col M K Sahu, defence PRO in Srinagar, later told TOI that the Army was only a facilitator of the seminar that was proposed to be organised by Kashmir Jurist. J&K HC chief justice Kotishwar Singh was supposed to be the chief guest.


In a scathing post on X, Omar said: “Is it appropriate for the Indian Army to get involved in the divisive issue of the uniform civil code and that too in a sensitive area like Kashmir? There is a reason the Indian Army has remained apolitical and areligious. This ill-advised UCC seminar is a threat to both these basic tenets. Going ahead with this risks opening up the army to charges of getting involved in the murky world of politics coupled with interfering in religious matters.”


Meanwhile, Mehbooba alleged that BJP “is infiltrating into all sacred institutions of the country, and Army seems to be yet another casualty”.