Srinagar: Changes to electoral rules in Jammu and Kashmir, including the potential addition of 2.5 million new voters, have triggered outrage and raised concerns that the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is seeking to shift the nature of politics in the region in its favour.
The Indian government has now said that people residing in Jammu for a year or more can register as voters. To achieve full benefits from the coercive move, eligible residents have been asked to produce government documents as proof.
Those with no proof of residence will be verified at their homes. The scrapping of the region’s semi-autonomous status and subsequent legal moves are aimed at changing the region’s demography. In recent years, the government has introduced a controversial domicile law that grants citizenship rights to every Indian living in the region for more than 15 years.
New laws making every Indian citizen eligible to buy land in the region were also passed. The increased deployment of troops, usurpation of economic resources and gerrymandering will not win the hearts and minds of locals, and instead will likely only worsen sentiments of marginalization, resentment and distrust.
