FLAWED on a million accounts, elections for the Illegally-occupied Jammu & Kashmir (IIOJ&K) Legislative Assembly have been held, results announced on 8 October and leader of the Jammu Kashmir National Conference (JKNC) Omar Abdullah sworn in as the Chief Minister. Elections were held for a total of legislative 90 seats. Major players were the Jammu & Kashmir National Conference (JKNC) in alliance with Indian National Congress and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). JKNC Alliance was opposed to Indian decision to revoke Article 370 of its Constitution and its opponent BJP, the architect of that decision. Illegal revocation of the Article 370 in August 2019 had stripped the Occupied Jammu Kashmir of its special autonomous status.

Being the first legislative elections after the revocation of Article 370, international media and analysts were viewing these elections as a referendum on revocation. The New York Times wrote, “It seemed clear that Kashmiris would rather vote for anyone, even a local party in alliance with mainstream Indian politicians than the Hindu-first leaders who revoked their special status in 2019”. Al Jazeera came up with the headline, “Party opposed to India’s stripping of Kashmir’s autonomy wins election”.

Yes, that is the way many analysts viewed the elections and interpreted its results. Personally, I fail to understand how someone could even expect the Kashmiri people to put their stamp of approval on BJP’s oppressive policies and........

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