As far as the current Lok Sabha polls are concerned, nothing is more important for Kargil residents than ensuring the defeat of candidates belonging to Leh, the other Ladakhi district. This provincial feud, based on religious/ethnic lines, is of long standing, and a seemingly perpetual one.
For all practical purposes, it's not the political parties which contest elections in Ladakh. The underlying animus between the two districts-the Shia Muslim-dominated Kargil and Leh, with its Buddhist majority-is the real thing. Overt politicisation over a decade has only exacerbated the divide (untouched but shadowed by the Kashmir crisis, recent years saw the formation of the autonomy-oriented Ladakh Buddhist Association). And parties acknowledge it in the choice of candidates.
Says Asghar Karbalai of the Imam Khomeini Memorial Trust, which supports the principles of the Ayatollah, "For 50 years, all parties have been giving their 'mandate' to Leh. We are always left high and dry. The Ladakh Hill Development Council is in Leh and then there is the Ladakh Scouts for the people of Leh. What is left for Kargil? So, now we don't vote for anyone from Leh. We support our own candidate."
To tap this latent hostility, the National Conference (NC) has fielded a retired dig-Ghulam Hassan Khan, who hails from Kargil-and the Congress has put up Thupstan Chhewang of Leh. This is the main fight; the bjp is a non-entity in Ladakh. It is still trying to gain a foothold in the region with the help of the RSS, which recently opened an office in Leh. However, the saffron party has decided to contest, and has given its ticket to Sonam Paljor, a retired itbp commandant. None of these candidates can boast a long association with their parties.
While Paljor had nothing to do with the bjp till a day before his candidature was announced, NC's Khan was never a party member, though last time he was in charge of its campaign (the NC man won by 30,000 votes). Khan also takes care not to identify himself entirely with Farooq Abdullah's party: "My campaign will be focused on Kargil. I'm not concerned with the NC manifesto. I have my own manifesto for Kargil."
Khan doesn't mince words in projecting himself as a Kargil-only candidate as opposed to the whole of Ladakh. Qamar Ali Akhoon, MLA from Kargil and minister of state for public works in the Farooq government, gives out a list of issues that he intends to take up during the campaign. These include a micro-hydel project in Parkichik, Kargil; a sarai (inn) in Delhi for the people of Kargil; a passport office in the town; construction of Zojila tunnel in the district and demand for raising a Kargil Scouts on the lines of the Ladakh Scouts. The NC candidate admits to the Leh versus Kargil feeling. "The only solution is to carve out two separate constituencies," says Akhoon.
The bjp's Paljor has his own Leh-specific list of promises. He promises a highway connecting Leh, Zanskar, Kishtwar and Jammu, the inclusion of Leh's Buddhi language in the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution. And unlike the others, he's projecting the war. "We protected the Kargil sector," says Paljor.
Despite the shelling, more people can be seen on the streets of Kargil now compared to May and June when the war was at its peak. Markets remains open and traffic plies normally. But till late last week, there was no hubbub that comes with a general election being around the corner. "Campaigning will pick up only two or three days before polling," explains businessman Mohammed Hassan Ajaz.
The people of the sector, still reeling from the acute effects of dislocation they had to undergo during the two-month-long war, are full of their more mundane, immediate concerns, like lost livestock and crop. Says Shamsuddin, 70, a resident of Biaras village near Dras: "I had to flee home on May 16. I had 27 goats but they have all disappeared. Then a live Pakistani shell is still buried in my shop. Despite requests, the army has done nothing. I can't open my shop."
As for the polls, there are four candidates hailing from Kargil-Khan, Nasarullah of the JD (Secular), and two Independents, Mohammed Hassan Commander and Muhammad Murtza. Locals say Commander, a former MP, has a committed votebank. This might lead to a division of votes, a possibility giving sleepless nights to the NC because, it may make it very difficult to defeat Congress' Chhewang. That's a less-than-cheery prospect for the people of Kargil, given that he comes from Leh. Also worrying is the divide among religious bodies, which have a considerable say in the rural votes.
Straight out of war, Ladakh is going to the hustings. Sounds as if peace and normalcy are back in the war-torn region? Not quite. Early in the morning at 4 o'clock, while travelling on the perilous National Highway 1A, which links Srinagar and Leh via Kargil, shells from across the border landed only a few yards away from our car. Clearly, for the local populace, the current elections are a distant affair and personal safety is right up there on their priority.
