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Sheela Bhatt in Tral (Pulwama)
Just leave Srinagar behind and drive down south. Pass through a few kilometres of saffron fields and by the signboard that announces proudly: World's best saffron grows here. Pass by Pampore and Avantipura towns, besides a few army check points and heavily guarded camps.
After some 45km, you will come across golden yellow paddies on both sides of roads and then the town of Tral.
The still highly insecure town is on the border of the thick deodar forests of the Pir Panjal mountain range, which has been a safe haven for militants for a decade now.
Being Friday, the town is bustling with activity. Villagers from the outlying areas also join in the prayers here in the main masjid.
Tral goes to the polls on Tuesday, October 1, in the third phase of the Jammu & Kashmir assembly election. Yet, election fever is conspicuous by its absence here.
There are no posters, no hoardings, no slogans on the walls.
I go to the house of Ghulam Nabi Bhat, the National Conference candidate. The house is a huge, heavily guarded mansion. But the guards tell me that Bhat does not live there. "Khatra hai (It's dangerous)," explain neighbours.
Bhat's father Mohammad Subhan was a member of the legislative assembly when he was shot dead. Later, militants killed one of his sons, a revenue officer. And yet Ghulam Nabi is contesting the election, almost as if from exile. He lives in Srinagar.
Sheikh Abdul Rashid, a teacher, says, "Bhat won't campaign, he will not ask for votes, but he will win the election because 98 per cent of the people in the town won't go to the polling stations. A few hundred will be forced to vote by the army and the Special Task Force [of the state police]."
The Congress could not get even a single Kashmiri Muslim candidate in the whole district and was forced to allot the seat to Surender Singh, who belongs to the neighbouring town of Munghama.
More than 10,000 Sikhs continue to live in and around Tral, unlike the Kashmiri Pandits. Beant Singh, a teacher in a local school, was born in Tral. "We never depended on the government for our safety," he says. "If we had depended on the government, we would have been refugees by now. We depended on our neighbours. Some stray groups do behave recklessly, but even the militants follow a few rules. We stayed back because you don't feel like leaving your birthplace. Why die elsewhere?"
Beant Singh isn't sure if he will vote. "This election will not change the Kashmir scene," he says. "If the National Conference comes back to power how are we going to see development? I will do what my neighbours do. I always walk behind them, not ahead of them!"
Tral has around 86,000 ration cardholders, says Bashir Ahmed, an employee of the state government's food supplies department. "Nothing is going to change our lives," he says of the election. "In our town two army camps have been set up. We want the army men to shift to a nearby place. They have blocked the roads, making our life difficult. Our women can't move around freely. We have asked our MP, Ali Mohammad Naik, to help us. But there is no one to listen to our grievances. We have heard that the National Conference is going to come back to power with a reduced majority. We will be back to square one then."
Ahmed claims that in Tral the hot issue is unemployment. People regret that the increased army activity in the area has not led to them getting more jobs. "Double graduates are not even earning the minimum daily wages," says Ahmed. "We don't want to vote because NC will be coming to power. In that case why should we vote?"
Ahmed's junior colleague in the office claims, "We believe Farooq Abdullah and [Deputy Prime Minister] L K Advani are hand-in-glove. Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee is not able to have his way. In Agra, they [India and Pakistan] didn't [make any] progress. We were all hoping that something would move in the right direction and a final solution to the Kashmir problem [would be found]. But the nexus of Farooq's government in Kashmir and the Bharatiya Janata Party-led government in New Delhi must break."
Like elsewhere in the Kashmir valley, 'buniyadi musla' (fundamental issue) and 'markaz' (the central government) are oft-quoted words. "For the time being, the cries of azadi (freedom) have been replaced by furious anti-government emotions," says Ahmed. "We are an emotional people. Sometimes we mix up our feelings."
He explains to me, "The common man's perception is that the central government is giving Rs 2,000 crore (approximately US $412.37 million) to Kashmir, but that huge fund is going to the homes of a few top National Conference leaders. Nothing is percolating here, in the villages. Why vote again and give them another chance to make money?"
Ahmed's friend, an employee of the Food Corporation of India, says, "Our hatred for India will not decline as long as New Delhi supports the dynastic rule of the Abdullahs. New Delhi rejected the autonomy bill. On the issue of autonomy, the National Conference and New Delhi are fooling us. The people of India think there is no one in the valley like Abdullah. What injustice!"
I meet a cleric, Mohammad Yusuf, near the mosque. Smoothening his flowing beard, he says, "A Kashmiri will not lie if he puts his hand on his beard. I paid Rs 120,000 to a politician to get my relative a job at the lowest level in the government. Doctors have to spend around Rs 450,000 to get a job and Rs 150,000 for a teacher's post. I am not going to vote because I am asked to pay a bribe of Rs 50 for an election identity card. With 12 persons in my family, how can I afford to pay Rs 600 just to cast my vote?"
It is an irony that the current election in Jammu & Kashmir, one of the most written about and watched all over the world, is being fought on highly local issues.
"We are waiting for the election to get over so that we can sleep peacefully," says a businessman in the Tral market.
"Will you vote?" I ask.
"If the army forces us, we may go to the polling stations," he responds. "But if you really want us to cast our vote with our hearts in it, we will do it when India sits across the table for talks with Pakistan and Kashmiris on the Kashmir issue."
Roshanlal is one of the few Kashmiri Pandits still living in Tral. He opted to stay back because of his enormous land holdings. "One dies only once in a lifetime," he remarks. "Why worry?"
Roshanlal echoes his neighbours' mood: "Most Kashmiris dislike the dynastic rule of the Abdullahs, but are feeling helpless. Kashmiri Pandits are merely an election card now."
He adds with a touch of sadness, "We really fail to understand the mood of New Delhi. What do they want out of Kashmir?"
Raj Dutta, Roshanlal's sister, is married and settled in New Delhi. She is on a visit to Tral, her birthplace. "My town is well-known for its water," she says. "Nowhere in the world will one get such sweet water. It is hot in winter and cold in summer. Nothing can quench your thirst as well as the water of our natural springs."
Yet, Dutta says, the Pandits of Tral will never return on the government's initiative. They will do so only on the Kashmiris' invitation. "After all, who can ever forget their birthplace?"
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