India’s Hindu nationalist ruling party vowed on Monday to take back decades-old special rights from the people of Jammu and Kashmir, making an election promise that can provoke a backlash in the country’s only Muslim-majority state.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is widely expected to retain power after a general election that starts on Thursday, though with a much smaller mandate, hit by concerns over a shortage of jobs and weak farm prices.
Pollsters say its re-election campaign got a boost from recent hostilities with arch-rival Pakistan, after a February suicide bombing that killed 40 Indian security forces in the Himalayan region. “Nationalism is our inspiration,” Modi said after releasing the BJP’s election manifesto at its headquarters in New Delhi, as supporters chanted ‘Modi, Modi’.
The BJP has consistently advocated an end to Kashmir’s special constitutional status, which prevents outsiders from buying property there, arguing that such laws have hindered its integration with the rest of India. “We believe that Article 35A is an obstacle in the development of the state,” the party said, referring to a constitutional provision dating from 1954, and reiterated its long-held desire to abolish Kashmir’s autonomous status by scrapping another law known as Article 370.
BJP supporters have demanded the removal, expressing anger at many Kashmiris’ resistance to Indian occupation. “The BJP´s campaign is largely around nationalism, national security and this is what is getting echoed in their manifesto,” said Sanjay Kumar, director of Centre for the Study of Developing Societies, a think tank.
Repeal would bring widespread unrest, Kashmiri political leaders warned. “Let them do it and it will pave the way for our azadi,” Farooq Abdullah, president of Kashmir’s National Conference party, told an election rally, referring to freedom for the region. “They are wrong. We will fight against it.”
Yousuf Tarigami, the leader of a left party in Kashmir, warned of ‘disastrous and unimaginable repercussions’.
Voting in the general election begins on Thursday, but with about 900 million eligible voters, will be spread across several weeks, with ballots counted on May 23.