[Reader-list] Pandits overcome distance and cynicism, join J-K electoral process

[Shivam V]

Very strange story. The whole story says how minuscule is the number
of people who are voting, who are interested. All the quotes say we
couldn't care less. People who have settled down in Delhi, working
with MNCs (as one of them in the story is) will obviously be more
interested in the Delhi elections. But the title and the intro of the
story are like, yay, Pandits voting long distance and defeating the
enemy! They don't need that yaar, Indian army hai na!

On Wed, Dec 17, 2008 at 4:44 PM, Aditya Raj Kaul
<kauladityaraj at gmail.com> wrote:
> Pandits overcome distance and cynicism, join J-K electoral process
>
> *Geeta Gupta <http://www.indianexpress.com/columnist/geetagupta/>* Posted:
> Dec 17, 2008 at 0119 hrs IST - Indian Express
>
> Link -
> http://www.indianexpress.com/news/pandits-overcome-distance-and-cynicism-join-jk-electoral-process/399431/
>  **
> **
> <http://www.indianexpress.com/news/decks-cleared-for-minority-status-to-jains/373085/>
>  *New Delhi:* Pandit migrants living in Delhi for nearly 20 years now are
> voting long distance to keep their stake in Jammu and Kashmir alive.
>
> At least 40 people have voted so far in the last five phases through the
> postal ballot, and 59 others have already filled their Migrant forms
> (M-forms) to cast their votes on Wednesday, when South Srinagar district
> goes to the polls in the sixth phase.
>
> Srinagar district has the highest number of Pandit votes at 23,796, most of
> who migrated to different parts of the country after violence broke out in
> the Valley in the 1990s.
>
> "We are Kashmiris before Pandits. I am very happy that the people of Kashmir
> have come out in large numbers to vote this time, despite threats and
> boycott calls by the separatists," Rashneek Kher, a 27-year-old Kashmiri
> Pandit, said. He migrated with his family from Badgam at the age of 16.
> Today, he is married and has a three-year-old daughter. He works with a
> multinational company in Faridabad, as head of logistics department. Kher is
> registered as a voter in Badgam but says he has never voted. "I will never
> vote till I am given a chance to vote in the place where I belong," he said.
> Pandit migrants in Delhi feel the entire exercise of voting is futile and
> the process too cumbersome. A lot of voters blame the tedious and very
> complicated process of filling up migrant forms for the small number of
> votes sent. "Not more than 40 people voted in the first five phases. But at
> least 59 voters have registered to vote tomorrow by filling up the M-forms,"
> an election officer at the Prithviraj Road polling station said.
>
> For the sixth phase tomorrow, Kashmiri Pandits will be able to cast their
> votes at two places in Delhi, Kashmir House on Prithviraj Road and the
> office of the Deputy Director Horticulture, Shalimar Bagh.
>
> "I am not interested in voting and the entire process is too futile. The
> younger generation really doesn't bother about this farce of an election
> process. We are anyway a minority and our votes don't matter," Rahul
> Pandita, a 32-year-old Pandit migrant living in Delhi for the last 14 years,
> said.
>
> Meanwhile, an Internet campaign has been taken up by the Delhi-based
> Kashmiri Visthapit Sangarsh Samiti (KVSS), seeking "100 per cent KP voting"
> in absentia. The organisation is sending out strong worded emails,
> motivating people to check their names in the electoral list and fill in the
> M-forms, as their "inaction will only benefit the enemy".
>
> "With over 10 Kashmiri Pandit candidates contesting from various national
> parties, it's a win-win situation for us," S K Bhat, General Secretary,
> KVSS, said.
>
> Habba Kadal and Amira Kadal are two areas in the Valley that have a strong
> Pandit population. As many as 10 Pandit candidates have filed their
> nominations from the Habba Kadal constituency, including one from the BJP,
> one from the Congress, one from the Lok Janshakti Party, and independent
> sitting MLA Raman Mattoo. Amira Kadal too has one Pandit candidate standing
> from the BJP, one from the People's Democratic Front.
>
> "Not many people are able to vote as the process of registration is not
> technically sound. Also, polling happens on working days in Delhi and most
> voters are employed here with the private sector and might not get a day
> off," Bhat said.
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