As electioneering nears end, J&K stands on the cusp of history

The vast majority of ordinary Kashmiris badly resent the loss of special status and statehood

- S N M ABDI

As the people of Jammu & Kashmir today go about exercising their franchise in the last phase of polling ahead of the counting of votes and announcement of results exactly a week later on October 8, I am reminded of the words of former United States President Bill Clinton, of all people.

Clinton, now 78 years old but still in very good health, had once described Kashmir as the most dangerous place on earth. While in the Oval Office, he was very apprehensive that Kashmir, sandwiched between India and Pakistan in the Himalayas, might trigger yet another war between the nuclear-armed neighbours. He knew that India and Pakistan had fought three full-fledged wars over Kashmir since independence from British colonial rule in 1947, and he dreaded the possibility of a fourth given the perpetually strained relations between Islamabad and New Delhi.

But today Prime Minister Narendra Modi has an altogether different kind of war on his hands in J&K. One can loosely call it the battle of the ballot. The moot question is: Can Modi rediscover his lost charisma as India's biggest vote-catcher across the political spectrum by delivering India's only Muslim-majority region to the Hindu-first Bharatiya Janata Party to recompense for its stunning loss of majority in Parliament under his charge?