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Srinagar: Seven years after the reading down of Article 370 by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led Union government on August 5, 2019, the political landscape of Jammu and Kashmir presents a paradox. While the electoral process has returned through Assembly elections and an elected government in the region, the nature of political engagement has undergone a big change. Mainstream politics has returned, but local politicians and political analysts claim that the political space remains different from the pre-2019 time.

“The August 5 decision disempowered the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir. Across Kashmir, almost all political formations remain unhappy with the decision. Jammu and Kashmir today is less empowered and, in many ways, less secure. If you ask BJP-affiliated politicians, they will say the decision has accelerated development and reduced separatism. But if you ask local political parties, they will tell you that it stripped Jammu and Kashmir of the protections provided under Articles 370 and 35A and disempowered the region. That is true,” political scientist and international relations expert professor Noor Ahmad Baba told The Wire.

The reading down of Article 370 and Article 35A, and the bifurcation of the erstwhile state into two Union Territories – Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh – brought an immediate halt to conventional political activity in the region in 2019. Curfews, communication restrictions and preventive detentions of mainstream political leaders defined the months that followed the centre’s move to scrap the autonomous position of Jammu and Kashmir.

‘Democratic normalcy cannot be measured by elections alone’

The Jammu and Kashmir National Conference (NC) chief spokesperson and legislator, Tanvir Sadiq, believes that the political landscape in J&K has changed since August 2019. “Elections have been held, and an elected government is back in place, but the democratic normalcy cannot be measured by elections alone”.

“Elected representatives are accountable to the people, but they continue to function within significant administrative and constitutional constraints that limit their ability to govern effectively,” said Sadiq.

Until the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act in 2019, the erstwhile state had a bicameral legislature. The lower chamber, the Legislative Assembly, was composed of 87 members directly elected for six-year terms to single-member districts, under the Jammu and Kashmir Constitution. The upper chamber, called the Legislative Council, comprised 28 indirectly elected members and eight members nominated by the governor.

“Instead of focusing entirely on development and public welfare, much of the effort goes into navigating institutional impediments. The gap without an elected government weakened democratic engagement,” Sadiq told The Wire.

Under the new arrangements, announced from the floor of the parliament by Union home minister Amit Shah in 2019, the new Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir would have a unicameral legislature with limited powers and at least 83 elected members. (As in the old assembly, another 24 seats associated with constituencies in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) would be left vacant.)

While the return of assembly elections in 2024 has restored electoral politics, questions remain about whether political space has expanded or contracted in the years since.

“Political activity has resumed, but a truly vibrant democracy requires not just the space to contest elections, travel, meet people and express political views, but also empowered institutions that enable elected governments to govern in accordance with the mandate given to them by the people,” an NC leader said.

A controversial new delimitation of constituencies was completed in 2022. It increased the assembly size to 90 members, awarding the Hindu-dominated Jammu area a disproportionate share of seats, which was widely expected to favour the BJP.

“The political space available to parties in Jammu and Kashmir is far more restricted today than it was before 2019. Even the party in power does not enjoy the authority that a state government traditionally would,” Noor said.

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