In yet another defining moment of 2008, the voter of Jammu and Kashmir has affirmed strong candidature as “the person of the year”. In assembly elections spaced over seven phases, J&K’s voters defeated not just the separatists’ call for boycott, but also every reason for postponement of elections that had been trotted out. As government formation predictably captures the spotlight, stop to collate the voters’ most significant achievements. Consider the consistently record turnouts, averaging at almost 62 per cent for the whole state. Every region of the state — Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh — saw huge increases in turnout. In areas of the Valley considered separatist strongholds, voters defied calls for an election boycott. In the colder reaches of the state, they proved wrong the pre-election argument that the state’s geography demanded a warm-weather election, and therefore postponement. But, more meaningfully, by voting in such large numbers, by showing confidence in electoral politics, they wrested back their voice from those who’d speak in their name.

The unyielding separatists, from the more hardline Syed Ali Shah Geelani to Sajjad Lone, have already acknowledged the rebuff. The turnout is also a rebuff to the highly articulate bleeding hearts in this country that saw in the disturbances of this summer the need for a more decisive solution outside of the usual constitutional processes. In their mandate J&K’s voters have offered a counter-narrative. Yes, the state has its peculiar issues — issues that they consider priority enough to place alongside the bijli-sadak-pani everyday concerns — but they find reason to show that they believe the electoral process can provide solutions to their problems.

... contd.