There is an air of festivity in the valley after ten long years where, in the words of a Kashmiri youth, “our state had become a prison camp”. Banners have been strung up along the main streets of important cities and candidates have been freely criticising each other’s parties, ideologies or the lack thereof, and more interestingly in typical Kashmiri style, been casting wild allegations against their opponents. But as one white-haired and obviously seasoned bystander remarked in downtown Srinagar, “This is the success of jamhooriyat (democracy). We are finally being able to inhale fresh air.”
Even the most cynical are basking in this freedom, though one youth in Traal burst out, “We have been treated as a far-flung outpost by the centre. Let us see how long this will last.”
There is little doubt that most Kashmiris who cast their vote on Thursday knew only too well that the battle lines this time around have been drawn between the National Conference-Congress alliance and the BJP along with its many satellite parties, many of whom are fighting these elections by putting up independent candidates.
No one has been able to beat the bravado shown by Engineer Rashid who was recently given interim bail by a sessions court in Delhi so he could campaign in these elections. “I will be king, not kingmaker,” he has claimed in an interview going on to state that there was a political vacuum in the valley which he wanted his party candidates to win so that he could travel to Delhi to “discuss political issues with Modi”.
Ifra Jan, the attractive spokesperson of the NC, wasted no time in cutting Rashid to size. “He won from the Baramulla constituency in the Lok Sabha elections because his sons went around begging the public that........