Hello, everyone. Good morning, afternoon or evening, and welcome to this edition of Notes from South Asia. You can find all the articles in the series here (along with my other diaries).
Today, we will cover elections and persecution in Kashmir, India, environment in Maldives, and persecution of reporters in Nepal.
India
Kashmir Turning Up to Vote
I will share three stories, one editorial and a journalists’ reflection on this topic. Two from the Hindu which do not interpret or say anything. Just says that the Kashmiris have turned up to this election to vote in numbers not seen since the 1990s. Another from Scroll that talks to some Kashmiris who had boycotted the vote in earlier elections in support of freedom but now thinks they should vote to keep BJP at bay. An editorial from the Hindu, which cautions against assuming anything as far as the voter turnout is concerned. And finally, reporters’ notes from Peerzada Ashiq reflecting on changes in Kashmiri election from 1990s to now.
All right then, let us get on with voting in Baramulla and Sri Nagar. Peerzada Ashiq reports on voter turn out in Sri Nagar for the Hindu.
Compared to the past, a new voting pattern was observed across 18 Assembly segments spread over five districts of Srinagar, Ganderbal, Budgam, Pulwama and Shopian. Militancy hotbeds of Pulwama and Shopian surpassed the previous low voter turnout records, which remained in single digits since 2009. This time, Pulwama district’s Pampore area saw 35.86% voting, Pulwama 39.25%, Rajpora 42.80%, and Tral 37.52%. Shopian district also recorded 45.04%.
Many voters credited higher turnout to the post-2019 poll narrative of the regional parties, with the candidates promising restoration of Article 370, release of youths from jails, lifting curtailment over freedom of expression and securing jobs and land for locals.
In Pulwama’s Karimabad, once a no-go zone for mainstream political parties because of the domination of local militants, many voters saw this election as “a means to end the ongoing raids by security agencies”.
“Pulwama district just saw raids and slapping of the Public Safety Act (PSA) on youths after 2019. Voting is a means to bring a change and end the sense of fear,” said a young voter in Karimabad.
PDP candidate Waheed-ur-Rehman Parra posed for a picture with the father of a slain militant. “In Aglar, Pulwama, every household bears the weight of a militant’s grave. Today, Qadir Kak, who lost his son to militancy, is voting to prevent more children from becoming collateral damage,” Mr. Parra said.
Unlike rural pockets of south Kashmir that saw brisk polling, urban pockets of Srinagar district recorded relatively less poll percentage, with Channapora recording 22.97%, Eidgah 25.68%, Habba Kadal 13.25%, Hazratbal 26.28%, Khanyar 23.06%, Lal Chowk 26.01% and Zadibal 27.52%. Srinagar city would witness the impact of separatists’ boycott call in the past.
“We have voted against the BJP and its designs against Muslims of India. See what happened to Babri Masjid. Also, we fear that rich outsiders will come and buy properties in Srinagar. Article 370 and 35A need to be restored,” said a first-time voter on the condition of anonymity at the Boys Higher Secondary School, Nawakadal, in the heart of the old city.
It appears power bills were also a factor in people coming out to vote (though Mr. Ashiq says in his notes that ideology mattered more).
Peerzada Ashiq reports on Baramulla where apparently even militant cadres came out to vote.
A paradigm shift in the voting pattern in Baramulla Lok Sabha constituency in the Kashmir Valley pushed the polling percentage to 59% by 5 p.m. on May 20, breaking the previous record of 46.65% in 1996. An unprecedented number of women, relatives of active militants and even cadres of the banned Jamaat-e-Islami (JeI) turned up to cast their votes.
“Zero violence was reported during voting in Baramulla. Poll percentage increased from 4% in 2019 to 44% in Sopore. The Baramulla constituency recorded all-time highest voter turnout of 59%,” said P.K Pole, chief electoral officer, J&K.
The scene in Sopore in Baramulla district was in contrast to the past when a trickle of voters would walk gingerly towards deserted polling booths. Sopore registered the highest turnout in three decades. It is a bastion of the JeI and the home town of senior separatist leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani.
Mohammad Ashraf Ganie, president of the Sopore Market, was among the senior citizens who were casting their votes for the first time in their lives. “Turnout in Sopore would be one or two percent in the past. Because of the situation, I never voted all these years. People voted this time to see development and prosperity in Sopore, which is facing both an acute water and power crisis. Youth also came forward,” Mr. Ganie said.
Several voters in the town talked about their concerns, including the harsh process of police verification in jobs, sealing of houses and denial of passports for being relatives of militants and separatists. “We hope the elected representatives will put an end to this harsh process,” a voter said, on the condition of anonymity.
Quite a number of reasons given for voting.
Dawood Mir, brother of active militant Bilal Mir, said he had come to vote for “Sopore’s development”. Two other brothers of his are in jail because of the sibling who is a militant, said Mr. Dawood Mir. “One brother is in the Kupwara jail and another in a Jammu jail. We will try our best to bring our militant brother home. But I request the government to release my brothers,” he said. Family members of other active militants such as Omar, Abid Qayoom and Umar Lone from Baramulla district also came to exercise their franchise.
Scores of banned JeI members were seen voting in the Baramulla-Handwara-Sopore belt. “I have been voting since 1969. It was because of rigging in 1987 that our faith in the electoral process got eroded. If rigging is not allowed and the ban on the JeI is lifted, we will contest. Even otherwise we will come out and vote. I made the decision (to vote) after gauging the situation,” Ghulam Qadir Lone, a JeI member, said.
Anantnag elections were postponed and will be held tomorrow.
As far as people who want Independent Kashmir are concerned, they came out to vote because they want BJP to lose. As Safwat Zargar reports for Scroll.
This election, however, with Jammu and Kashmir reduced from a state to a Union territory, Ahmad’s plans are different.
“I will vote for a local regional mainstream party to keep BJP at bay,” said Ahmad, a businessman from North Kashmir’s Bandipora district. “Even if I have to spend money from my own pocket to mobilise voters against the party, I will be happy to do that.” [...]
“The fight this time is against BJP because of its anti-Muslim politics and onslaught on Kashmiris,” said Ahmad, who would often participate in separatist rallies in the past. “We need to have some shield against them.”
Ahmad is not the only Kashmiri to have changed their opinion on the ballot. [...]
Aariz Ahmad*, a law student, also did not believe in electoral exercises in Jammu and Kashmir. During the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, 26-year-old Ahmad had the choice of voting for the first time, but he stayed away. “I just didn’t identify with the electoral process,” he said. “Voting felt as if I had accepted the status quo in Kashmir.”
In 2024, Ahmad is ready to cast his vote. “I feel the only shield we can have against BJP will be through having our elected members in Parliament,” he said.
For him, the primary reason is a need to express his anger against the Hindutva party’s clampdown in Kashmir since 2019.
But there is also another factor at play. “The recent crisis in Pakistan has exposed its vulnerabilities and problems before the world,” Ahmad said. “When I compare that with the idea of secular Nehruvian India, I feel better to call myself an Indian.”
“It’s a choice of a lesser evil,” said a political observer in Srinagar, who did not want to be identified.
Kashmiris largely believe that political parties like National Conference, Peoples Democratic Party or Congress are relatively a better option than the Bharatiya Janata Party or its proxies, he added. “That is why many of those who had not voted before will vote in this election. A weaker BJP at the national level is better for Kashmir. Therefore, Kashmiris would like to contribute whatever it can in that fight.”
An analyst thinks if BJP had been contesting in Kashmir—they are not—then the turn out would have been far higher.
The Hindu editorial says that BJP should not read into the high voter turn out as endorsement of their decision to take the special status away from Kashmir (by abrogating article 370).
In the last six years, the elected Assembly was dissolved, the erstwhile State of Jammu and Kashmir bifurcated into two Union Territories, the special status of the province abrogated by the BJP-led Union government, and the Valley subjected to months of Internet shutdowns. Scores of politicians were also arrested. Kashmir still remains India’s most securitised region with recurring militant violence. While local body elections have been held since then, the general election is the first major poll with significant contestation involving the Valley’s mainstream polity.
Should the increase in turnout be read as a significant reduction in the alienation of the Kashmiri people? The answer is not unambiguous. A substantive section of the voters who turned out have sought a change in the status quo. The limitations on political activity in the Valley since 2018 have constrained citizens who have had little recourse to airing their grievances due to the absence of legislative representation in the Assembly. Thus, livelihood concerns have not been sufficiently addressed, and the greater electoral participation now reflects the need for representation of the electorate’s voices. Union Home Minister Amit Shah has stated that the higher polling in these two constituencies is the “greatest testament to rightness” of abrogating the special status that was enshrined in Article 370 — a statement devoid of reason. A truer reflection of the support for the abrogation would have been a favourable mandate for parties endorsing the move, but the BJP did not even field candidates in the Valley. It is clear that it saw the writing on the wall in terms of how it was perceived in the region. Mr. Shah and the BJP should not misinterpret the reasons for the increase in voter participation. The voices in the Valley have given way to some using the ballot box as a medium to get the region out of its political morass. The Indian state must listen and make amends.
Safwat Zargar says the same thing in another article for Scroll. That higher voter turnout should not be seen as endorsement of the union government.
Whatever it denotes though Peerzada Ashiq sees a change: Fear gives way to election fervour
In the last 34 years, parliamentary elections in Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) have been a battleground for mainstream political parties and separatists espousing ideologies ranging from Kashmir’s independence to accession to Pakistan. This year, for the first time in my journalistic career, I covered an electoral battle limited to the mainstream parties, with some championing the cause of semi-autonomous status for J&K and others for a complete integration with the Union of India. This is an unprecedented leap in the electoral dynamics of the region after the erstwhile State of J&K was stripped of special status and reduced to two Union Territories in 2019.
In 1999, I was a cub reporter with a local daily in Srinagar. Kashmir was in the throes of violence. Omnipresent militants kept security forces on their toes. As reporters, we had to prepare for days to cover the general election. We had to get special passes and plan to report from spots that ensured the least possibility of militant violence or street protests. The fear of being hit by stones on the street or even grenades near polling booths kept us on edge, especially on polling day.
The stage was set for elections in September-October. Most of the militant outfits and separatist groups had called for a poll boycott in all the three parliamentary seats of Kashmir Valley — Anantnag, Baramulla, and Srinagar. They described their decision as “a democratic way to reject India’s rule in Kashmir and a means to seek international attention” to the Kashmir issue. The run-up to the polls were marred by attacks on security forces and workers of parties. ‘Fidayeen’ or suicide attacks by militants began in Kashmir. I could gauge the fear from the fact that very few rallies were held, and only under multi-tier security arrangements. Many areas such as Srinagar’s old city and Baramulla’s Old Town were no-go zones for mainstream leaders for electioneering. Angry local youth would throw stones at these leaders if they attempted to hold rallies in these areas.
On polling day, bullet-proof vehicles or long columns of security forces could be seen on every lane. There were hardly any voters. In fact, no voter liked to be identified. Protesters checked locals for indelible ink and punished them on finding it. Many voters’ houses were stoned at night. Reporters could only speak to voters whose faces were covered. Locals referred to the voters as “ghadar (traitors)”. Srinagar recorded a voter turnout of 11.8% and Baramulla, 27.8% that year.
Cut to 25 years later. The scene has completely changed. The two regions recorded a turnout of 38% and 59%, respectively. The National Conference vice president, who is a candidate from the Baramulla seat, made his maiden poll speech in his 25-year-long political career in Srinagar’s old city. The poll venue was less than 1 km away from the plaque bearing the names of more than 30 civilians who died in firing by security forces on May 21, 1990, when they were carrying the body of assassinated separatist leader Mirwaiz Molvi Farooq for burial. The Peoples Democratic Party president, who is a candidate from the Anantnag seat, addressed a rally in Srinagar’s old city, a stone’s throw from the house of Mohammad Abdullah Bangroo, one of the founding members of the Hizbul Mujahideen. Rallies during the late evening and door-to-door campaigns were held for the first time in the most volatile pockets of south Kashmir. Parties hired lyricists and singers to increase their poll pitch.
He says that the battle this time has not been about power bills, roads and water but about ideology.
Kashmir Suppressed
Article 14 reports on the persecution of one journalist in Kashmir: Long Walk to Freedom Cut Short: A Chronicle Of Kashmir Journalist Aasif Sultan’s Captivity For Over Five Years
More than five years after the J&K police arrested him on terrorism charges, two years after a judge found no prima facie evidence against him, and three months after a judge squashed a detention order against him, Kashmiri journalist Aasif Sultan remains jailed. The police arrested the 36-year-old in another case under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act case on 29 February 2024, the same day he reached home for the first time in 2,010 days.
Srinagar: On 29 February 2024, Aasif Sultan’s six-year-old daughter Areeba saw her father as a free man when he reached home in Srinagar, Kashmir, after 2,010 days of incarceration in Jammu and Kashmir and Uttar Pradesh.
Areeba saw him behind bars or in handcuffs from behind a netted wall in the Srinagar central jail before he was moved to Ambedkar Nagar district jail in UP and Kot Bhalwal jail in Jammu.
“It felt as if she was seeing him for the first time,” said Muhammed Sultan Sayed, Aasif’s 67-year-old father, speaking of the day Sultan returned after five and half years.
Any hope for Sultan and his daughter to pick up the pieces and make up for lost years was shattered when J&K police arrested him in a five-year-old case later that day.
“On the day he was arrested again, she asked me, ‘He just returned. Where did he go now?’” Sayed, who retired from a clerical job in a government office a few years ago, said. “I told her he had only finished half of the Quran, and now he’s gone to finish the rest. What else could I have told a six-year-old? I just hope he returns home for Eid.”
Eid has come and gone, but Sultan is jailed in a case Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA), 1967, related to the incident of rioting inside Srinagar central jail on 4 April 2019.
The J&K police arrested Sultan the same day he returned home. He had secured bail in the UAPA case from August 2018 in April 2022, and a detention order under the Public Safety Act from August 2019 was quashed on 7 December 2023.
The jail authorities in UP took 78 days, more than two and half months, to release Sultan. TK shows the home secretary sanctioned the case against him on 15 February 2024, two weeks before he was released for a day.
The article talks about how he gets arrested time and again with courts ordering release after the investigators fail to provide evidence. Then he gets arrested again, courts order release, and you have the same process over and over.
Article 14 spoke with Sultan’s former colleagues and friends, who echoed the same sentiment: “He was targeted for his journalism.”
As per his colleague at the Kashmir Narrator, the state used Aasif as a “soft target” to set an example for those who “don’t toe the line. “It was pretty clear that his ‘critical’ journalism was a sore in the eye for the state, and they wanted to dismantle that kind of journalism in Kashmir,” said his colleague. They did succeed in doing so. Ever since his arrest, those who dare write against the state are hounded and booked on trumped-up charges.”
The colleague added, “For them, any story having critical information that links Kashmir to ‘conflict’ is anti-national.”
For Sultan’s daughter, Areeba, two months have passed since she was told that her father had gone to read the Koran.
“How long are we going to tell her these tales,” his father asked.
(The reporter of this article requested anonymity.)
There is no doubt that things have worsened in Kashmir since 2014. What can they do? None of us have any hope when BJP is in power. And it appears that there have been booth captures, voter suppression and now, we hear of Election Commission increasing voter numbers after the election while refusing to share voter turnout statistics (not personal data but counts) with the public (that case is in court).
Maldives
Environmental Protection
Aishath Shuba Solih reports for the Edition that Maldivian administration has at present no plans to set up an independent Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
Minister of Climate Change, Environment, and Energy, Thoriq Ibrahim, has stated that the government currently has no plans to establish Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) as an independent body.
In the verdict released by the Supreme Court after overturning the High Court's order regarding the suspension of the Gulhi Falhu land reclamation, Justice Husnu Al Suood emphasized that the government must provide the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) with all necessary legal freedom, power, facilities, and sufficient funding to fulfill their mandate of protecting the country's environment.
During the press conference held at the President's Office earlier this morning, a journalist had raised the question of granting legal autonomy to EPA.
In response, Minister Thoriq Ibrahim stated that the government will source the necessary human resources and other essentials required by EPA and offer full support to solidify the agency's operations. Although EPA is not an independent body, he emphasized that the government is making efforts to ensure the agency continues to work as independently as possible.
"We currently have no plans to establish EPA as an independent body," said Thoriq.
EPA was established through a resolution enacted by former President Mohamed Nasheed in December 2008. The agency carries out work assigned by the Minister of Climate Change, Environment, and Energy and implements guidelines issued by the Ministry. The government also seeks the EPA's consultation and participation at varying degrees during the drafting of guidelines. While the Ministry does not intervene in the EPA's day-to-day operations, it has the final say in all decisions. Establishing the EPA as an independent agency would involve granting it autonomous decision-making powers, enabling it to operate without direct oversight from the Ministry.
Shortened School Days
Mariyath Mohamed reports for the Edition that Ministry of Education has asked schools to shorten sessions thanks to adverse weather. It is not because students cannot attend locally but because many have remained stranded overseas due to rough weather.
The Ministry of Education has instructed schools to shorten the sessions to two to three hours on the first three days of school, citing adverse weather conditions across the country.
In a circular sent by the Ministry to schools, they announced steps that are to be taken in response to the adverse weather conditions with heavy rains, strong winds and rough seas, which are obstructing travel.
Hence, from next Sunday to Tuesday, sessions are to be shortened to be between two to three hours long.
The Ministry further said that on these three days, schools must conduct activities to promote mutual respect between students, promote students' wellbeing and protection, and to conduct programs against bullying within the sessions.
Many families have travelled within Maldives and abroad during the school holidays. However, in the middle of the holidays, Maldives entered into a period of rough weather across the country, resulting in preventing many from travelling back to their home islands ahead of the start of school.
Nepal
Political Vendetta Against Media
Sanjeev Satgainya reports for the Hindu that a Nepali media house chairman was arrested on charges of flaws in his citizenship documentation.
The police on Tuesday arrested Kailash Sirohiya, chairman of Kantipur Media Group (KMG), which publishes the Kantipur vernacular daily, over citizenship issues.
A team of police on Tuesday evening arrested Mr. Sirohiya from his office in Kathmandu.
Mr. Sirohiya’s detention follows an arrest warrant by Dhanusha District Court earlier on Tuesday, days after a case was filed at the Dhanusha District Police Office that there were some issues with Mr. Sirohiya’s citizenship.
Mr. Sirohiya has denied charges. In a statement, he said that he had acquired his citizenship as per the Nepali law and that he is a bonafide citizen of Nepal.
“The moment the issue had surfaced, I had made it clear through a social media post that I am open to any investigation by any competitive authority,” Mr. Sirohiya said. “But till date there has not been any single interrogation, and suddenly this arrest warrant has been issued.”
Mr. Sirohiya called the arrest an act of vengeance by Home Minister Rabi Lamichhane.
Mr. Lamichhane has been embroiled in a controversy over allegations that he misappropriated cooperative funds when he was the Managing Director of a television company, and Kantipur, a widely read Nepali language paper, has run a series of reports about him over the past few months.
In the statement, Mr. Sirohiya said that the arrest warrant was issued with the intent of blackmailing Kantipur into not publishing more reports on the issue of cooperative scam.
Kathmandu Post reports on Sirohiya’s defense at Dhanusha district court.
Bunch of weird charges about his citizenship certificate number (he was born in Nepal and got citizenship in 1979) matching with someone else’s (he says that is not his fault) and about type of citizenship (by descent, which seems dependent on the citizenship law applicable). A lot of administrative stuff, that seems to point at state persecution, really. Because it was mostly technical, I am not going to excerpt it.
Kathmandu Post has a special editorial on the subject too. Apparently, it is a joint letter to the prime minister.
We editors working at major media outlets in Nepal want to draw your attention to a recent case of arrest from a media house:
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Police arrested Kantipur Media Group Chairman Kailash Sirohiya from his office on Tuesday. All citizens should equally abide by the laws of the land and Sirohiya should be punished as per the law if he has done anything against it. Sirohiya himself has publicly said that he is ready for that.
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The context and the allegations levelled against him and the modus operandi of his arrest have raised serious questions. We have taken the arrest from inside a media house as intended to create pressure and fear on the press. The government agencies have never interrogated Sirohiya about the allegations. Yesterday he was suddenly arrested over some technical issues of his citizenship certificate. This issue will now be resolved by the court.
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Mr Prime Minister, we want to remind you—Rabi Lamichhane was not a Nepali citizen when he first became home minister in your Cabinet. Though he reacquired Nepal’s citizenship following a court order, he was and is someone who can be punished for simultaneously holding passports of two countries.
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We also want to make it clear why Home Minister Rabi Lamichhane has recently been attacking the media with animosity. The problem of cooperative fraud has become severe. Billions of rupees deposited by millions of Nepalis in cooperatives have been misappropriated, and they have not received their own deposits back. Media has continuously reported on around one billion rupees misappropriated by Rabi Lamichhane and Gorkha Media Network, where Lamichhane was one of the partners.
They want the government to investigate Lamicchane and rest assured that they (the editors) will not compromise on journalism.
That is it for today. Until next Friday, everyone. Stay safe. Be well. Take care.
May the journalists who speak truth to power, be it in Kashmir or Nepal, in the rest of India or elsewhere be free.