J&K deserves a govt that can deliver

ON December 11, 2023, the Supreme Court directed that Jammu and Kashmir’s statehood be restored ‘as soon as possible’. The learned judges, led by none other than the Chief Justice of India, also noted that the Legislative Assembly elections need not await the restoration of statehood, and issued a direction that the polls be conducted before September 30, 2024. A simple reading of the judgment will amply demonstrate how the spirit of the law was conveniently circumvented by reliance on the letter of the law.

The very fact of wide public participation will demonstrate that democracy has

at last come into its own in J&K.

In a telling statement in the concluding pages of his judgment, Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul pleaded that the Union set up a “truth and reconciliation Commission” just like South Africa did after the apartheid era. “This Commission should be set up expediently before memory escapes. The exercise should be time-bound. There is already an entire generation of youth that has grown up with feelings of distrust and it is to them that we owe the greatest duty of reparation,” he wrote. This was the voice of an anguished Kashmiri at what had become of his people, echoing what had been the demand of a former Chief Minister while in office — Omar Abdullah.

Now a Union Territory, the erstwhile state was brought through a Home Ministry notification under its administrative control to the extent of being as close to the Union Government’s administration as is the UT of Delhi. And it is to the executive of this entity that elections will be underway soon, but without Ladakh, which is a separate UT without a legislature.

At issue in this election is the restoration of self-government to the people of J&K, a status enjoyed by the citizens of every state in India, ruled by governments of their choice through a system of elections envied by many of the world’s democracies — from legislative assemblies down to the level of panchayats. The restoration of statehood is the centrepiece of the campaign of the Congress’ Rahul Gandhi, Set against this is only a string of failed promises and outright flops that have been the hallmark of the Home Ministry’s administration of the UTs of J&K and Ladakh. This is then the issue at the core of the campaign since the people across the two UTs will no longer countenance a government that cannot deliver.

In a remarkable pretence at restoring democracy, District Development Councils (DDCs), crafted with dexterity by talented bureaucrat BVR Subrahmanyam, then Chief Secretary of J&K, had been established in 2020. In an election swept by an alliance of UT parties, it was elected with no more authority than a cipher for the local police station house officer.

The Smart City signage across Srinagar marks sites of sewage effluents, potholed roads, damaged culverts or open manholes, supposedly under repair but with not a labourer in sight, only harassed citizens. Yes, there has been much activity in road-building in the main streets of Srinagar, but these, including the fabled boulevard, have been rendered unmotorable. That’s because wide pavements, used as I have seen for myself, by no strollers whatsoever, have been built along the roadside, strangling motor traffic, which now has to crawl nose to tail. A proud young Municipal Commissioner escorted me to the renovated upmarket Polo View market that bridges the Residency and Maulana Azad roads, which together pass off as Srinagar’s Connaught Place. Apart from the fact that the dashing young man was unable to step into the market without being surrounded by10 armed men in black with LMGs cocked, there were no customers in the market despite it being the high noon of the tourist season. And I was told that this frenetic building activity was being ably conducted by seasoned contractors from prosperous Gujarat, with migrant labour from UP, Bihar and West Bengal. So, what did the Kashmiris get out of this?

Sadly, the tale is the same with every other promise, Rates of employment have fallen sharply despite the promise of jobs, with many of the vacancies filled both in Jammu and Kashmir divisions with recruits from elsewhere. The recent extension of Scheduled Tribe facilities to Pahari or Rajput communities in Jammu division amidst a loud proclamation by Home Minister Amit Shah has gone nowhere since there are no jobs to be had, reserved or otherwise. Medical facilities have suffered, with nursing homes shutting down and patients travelling to Delhi for remedies. The prestigious Sher-i-Kashmir Institute of Medical Sciences, instead of being restored to its heyday of the 1980s, when it was equipped with state-of-the-art facilities — and where I was pulled back from the brink of death after an accident in 1993 when I was the Divisional Commissioner of Kashmir — is now languishing under a junior bureaucrat.

This will also explain why Farooq Abdullah’s National Conference (NC), in alliance with the Congress, has struck a chord with the people, be it his admirers or adversaries of yore. He is seen as the tallest regional leader who led his party to victory in Kashmir (winning two seats out of three) in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections; in Ladakh, the NC-backed independent candidate won. He also led the PAGD (People’s Alliance for Gupkar Declaration) to a win in the DDC elections.

This also explains why there is such a proliferation of candidates, even those that have had a declared separatist outlook. State Congress head Tariq Qarra has complained on TikTok that this is a ploy by the ruling party at the Centre to divide the Opposition. The release of several former leaders of the banned Jamaat-e-Islami from prolonged detention in the recent past and their grudging willingness to consider participating in the electoral process would appear to offer such a view. It might be recalled that their foremost leader at the close of the 20th century was Ali Shah Geelani, the apostle of the stridently separatist Hizbul Mujahedeen.

Nevertheless, while the integration of a former Hurriyat leader like People’s Conference chairperson Sajjad Lone into ‘mainstream politics’ was anything but painless, the success of Engineer Rasheed in the parliamentary elections, which he won from Baramulla — worsting none other than Omar Abdullah — has opened a door to dissidents, which in turn will open the way for universal participation in the electoral process, a process which to my mind holds the key to the ultimate resolution of the integration of J&K into India. Whether the upcoming election is looked upon as an exercise in futility as it will end up by forming a legislature with scant authority, the very fact of wide public participation will demonstrate that democracy has at last come into its own in J&K and give India the roadmap to its future with what was and hopefully will be ‘the people of the state of J&K’.