“We had promised in the parliament that Jammu and Kashmir [official name of Indian-administered Kashmir] will again be a state,” Modi said, addressing a rather dull crowd in Srinagar, the main city in the disputed Muslim-majority territory.
Only the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) “will fulfil this commitment”, he said without elaborating further.
Modi’s latest election pitch comes amid widespread anger in Kashmir at the BJP for scrapping the region’s limited autonomy and demoting it into a federally run territory in 2019.
The move is also aimed at blunting attacks from Kashmir-based parties, who have made the restoration of the special status and statehood their main poll agenda.
What power will the elected government have in Kashmir?
Political observers and Kashmiri analysts see the elections as a referendum on the BJP’s controversial decision –– and reflect upon the unchartered duality of running a legislature subservient to the central government.
While Kashmir parties have tried to realign their politics along the calls for restoration of special autonomy and “dignity”, experts told Al Jazeera that the newly elected government will have to work at the mercy of the Lieutenant Governor (LG), a constitutional head appointed by New Delhi under the current setup.
The LG now wields control over the greater bureaucracy, the anticorruption bureau, appointment of the Advocate General and law officers, and is included in matters of prosecutions and sanctions.
“The elected assembly will be completely under the thumb of the Lieutenant Governor, with curtailed powers for the head of government without any appreciable autonomy for the state,” Siddiq Wahid, an academic and political expert, told Al Jazeera.
The events of August 2019, Wahid said, “stripped us completely naked (of) our enhanced autonomy, dismantled the state and left it without any democratic representation for six years”.
The promise of statehood by the BJP, he added, is merely an act of “handing over a cap”. “We can put on a cap on top of our heads, but it means nothing,” he said, adding that “the more immediate objective is to divest Delhi of the direct political control over the state.”
What are the choices before the pro-India parties?
The pro-India Kashmir parties have accused the BJP of denying Kashmiris their democratic rights and promised to restore Article 370 and full statehood.
Showkat said he has observed a “huge revulsion and deepening trust deficit” post-August 2019 between Kashmiris and New Delhi. But despite the enthusiasm he has noticed among the cadres of regional political groups, Showkat said the upcoming government “will be nothing more than a sort of a metropolitan council”.
“It may deal with day-to-day administration and local issues but cannot go beyond that,” he said. “It will always be dependent upon the views and wishes of the LG.”
That is a reality that has not escaped the regional political powerhouses.
Indian batters went all guns blazing in reply to Bangladesh’s 233 all out in the first innings. Only 35 overs’ play was possible on the first three days of this final match due to persistent rains and ground conditions.