The Incident is now confirmed with CRPF filing an FIR based on complaints of jawans deployed on election duty that day. While the security forces displayed exemplary restraint, it is too much to expect so in every situation. After all, they are also made of flesh and bones. What if they had resorted to firing?

It is clear that the authorities in J and K and the union home ministry made a grave miscalculation while making security arrangements in Budgam. The separatists had already given a call for election boycott. Given the prevailing atmosphere in the Valley, law enforcing authorities must have known that violence could take place. And yet, the security forces were not in adequate strength. The stone pelting boys succeeded in terrifying them as also voters. The result was there for all to see---a shameful 7 per cent votes polled.

Reports suggest that people were willing to come out to cast their votes, but they were afraid to do so because of the violent atmosphere created by the stone pelting mob. There was just one election event that day in the entire Kashmir valley, the other byelection scheduled a week later. The Valley had no dearth of security forces at any given moment. Why, then, was this lapse?

It could be argued that the authorities did not want the election exercise to be seen as a garrison controlled event. But the entire world knows the reality in Kashmir. Running away from it is nothing but self deception. By doing so, the government is only lowering the morale of the security forces. You cannot expect them to perform under extreme indignity and pressure of restraint.

Getting a respectable polling figure is more important in democracy than to keep a façade of freedom. Polling figures would definitely have gone up if adequate security was deployed to ward off fear of violence among voters. The repolling exercise in some areas of the Srinagar constituency was equally disastrous—with a mere two per cent voters coming out to cast their votes. The voters simply did not want to turn up in an atmosphere of violence.

While security deployment is in the hands of authorities on which there should have been no goof up, what is now becoming a matter of concern is how to stop Pakistan from promoting civil resistance in the Valley. The latest intelligence reports suggest that Pakistan has changed its strategy on Kashmir. It is now superimposing militancy in J and K by promoting “civil resistance” through radicalization of youth.

Echoing the intelligence output, a just tabled Home Ministry report in Parliament says: “The year 2016 has seen a change in Pak tactics following a strategy of superimposition of militancy over civilian resistance through radicalization by vested interest groups and social media”.

What the report apparently means is that Pakistan is shifting from its earlier position of sending trained and armed youth to create disturbance in the Valley. It is now in the game of instigating the local youths for civil resistance by radicalizing them.

Clearly, the Government and the local authorities in J and K have to adapt new ways to deal with the situation. Stone pelting phenomenon, for example, is something the authorities are yet to deal with successfully. Pellet guns are being slowly replaced by less lethal ways like water canons etc. But this is just dealing with the physical aspects of militancy. What is needed, perhaps, is checking or curtailing radicalization. How does one do that? The prevailing political atmosphere is not conducive in J and K. If one party comes to power, the others fan militancy. It is a never ending cycle. How else to explain Dr Farooq Abdullah’s recent remark eulogising the stone pelters as freedom fighters? If a nationalist like him can make such remarks, what to expect of others. He is contesting the Kashmir Parliamentary seat in the byelection as NC candidate.

An all-party government in J and K might be an ideal situation, but that looks like a utopia for now. (IPA Service)