05.08.2019 will go down in history as a day of unexpected & unusual changes with far-reaching consequences for the people of Jammu, Kashmir & Ladakh as well as for the rest of India. While Ladakh became a Union Territory of its own – separated from the State of J&K – Jammu & Kashmir came to be designated as another Union Territory. The change was affected using article 370 of the Indian Constitution & abrogating the special – but temporary – status accorded to the state of Jammu & Kashmir.

After 7 months of the resolution being passed by the Indian Parliament & notified in the Gazette of India the process of implementing the provisions of the act in the Union Territory of Jammu & Kashmir is under progress.

Politics:

Initially the political class of the Kashmir Valley was shaken beyond belief because of the shock & awe technique used by the Central Government in Parliament as well as on the ground. Even today three Ex Chief Ministers of J&K state along with some of their workers are under detention. However, over a period of time, the Kashmir based politicians have put their act together & some of them have come together to launch a new political party today which the President of the party described as a Regional party with National outlook.  The party is essentially an amalgam of dissenters from several parties that were in operation in the erstwhile state of Jammu & Kashmir.

The President of the party broadly described the objectives of the party which include restoration of statehood to Jammu & Kashmir, domicile rights to the people of Jammu & Kashmir especially in context of land & jobs. On abrogation of article 370 & 35A he said that since the matter is pending before the Supreme Court he would not like to comment on it.

He said that his template for Jammu & Kashmir would be development of the state, truth & only truth as well as harmony & peace for the people of the Union Territory.

In fact this is a new party on the ground but the old political & non-political entities continue to be active & on the face of it it looks like that the Kashmir based politicians have taken a lead once again leaving the so called politicians of Jammu in the background & playing second (third…fourth…..may be n ‘th’) fiddle.

Where does Jammu region stand under the changed circumstances?

Since 1930s it is Kashmir that has dominated the narrative of Jammu & Kashmir – both nationally & internationally. Prior to 1947 it was the cozy relationship between Jawaharlal Nehru & the Kashmiri leader Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah that swept the Dogra dynasty away from the helm of affairs of the erstwhile princely state.

Subsequent to independence (bifurcation) of the country the relationship between the Kashmiri leader & Jawaharlal Nehru deteriorated & the Sheikh was arrested on 08.08.1953 for anti-national activities. In Jammu the Praja Parishad tried to put up a valiant fight for the rights of the people from the Jammu region but events overtook them (during this period Dr. Shyama Prasad Mukherjee, founder president of Jana Sangh died on 23.06.1953, under suspicious circumstances, in Srinagar) culminating in political power staying & getting further consolidated in the hands of the Kashmiri political leadership.  Jammu & Ladakh continued to stay on the side lines, rudderless & leaderless with spikes of short & fewer in between bursts of anger at the plight of its people.

Kashmir too had its problems but their nature was entirely different from that of the people of Jammu & Ladakh. They wanted to stay separate from the Indian nation while maintaining a tenuous “love-HATE” relationship which was developed into an art form for extracting there pound of flesh & extravagant concessions from the ever ready Central Government that always was also ready to leave the contentious issues to be settled for some other day or preferably by some other Government. These attitudes on both the sides culminated in the beginning of an atrocious era of mayhem from 1989/90 the end to which is not yet in sight.

The Central Government under Prime Minister Modi thought that they need to do something different after all their efforts to normalize situation in the Kashmir Valley came to a naught. Article 370 of the Indian Constitution was used to abrogate special status to the J&K state on 05.08.2019 that was one of the main demands of the Praja Parishad. With this curtains also came down on controversial article 35A.

But is abrogation of article 370 an end in itself? Not really. The reason being that because of 70 years of (mis)rule by the Kashmiri political class (three families specifically) over Jammu & Kashmir the trust between the two regions is at its lowest ebb. It has always been felt by the people of Jammu & Ladakh (now a separate UT) that their regions were always given a step motherly treatment be it in the field of infrastructure development, education or employment. It is not often realized that the only Chief Minister of Jammu & Kashmir from Jammu region – Ghulam Nabi Azad – fell to the mechanizations of Kashmiri leadership & could not complete his tenure as Chief Minister of the state.

What is actually required is the political, economic & administrative empowerment of Jammu region through legally enabled structural arrangements & guarantees so that any new political dispensation that may come to rule J&K after elections are called is not able to hijack the resources of the state as per its whims & fancies. Some of the actions required are as under:

1. Delimitation of constituencies: Delimitation of electoral constituencies should be done in a fair & transparent manner. Delimitation should be based on a fresh census of the Union Territory & not on the census carried out in 2011. The census of 2011 is believed to be highly flawed. Delimitation based on flawed census will have the same impact on the psyche of the people of the State as was experienced during the rigged state elections of 1987 with unpredictable consequences. A fair & transparent process will satisfy every stake holder & no one will have a grudge against anyone even if one region gets higher number of seats to legislature than the other.
2. Regional Development Councils: Regional Development Councils should be constituted for both the regions of Jammu & Kashmir with adequate political, financial & administrative powers to ensure economic & cultural development of both the regions.
3. CM & DyCM: If the CM is from one region the DyCM should be from other region of the UT.
4. Ministers & their portfolios: Proportional representation should be given to both the regions while appointing Ministers & all important portfolios should not go to Ministers from one region.
5. Budget: There should be separate budget for development works of both the regions & diversion of funds from one region to another should not be allowed. Watch bodies need to be established to ensure that the infrastructure projects do not incur time & cost overruns. There should be a well publicized works & procurement policy of the Government for the projects along with a clear cut delegation of powers for the engineers / managers of the projects.
6. Employment: Number of employees in the Government service including the Civil Secretariat should be proportionate to the population of the regions.
7. Durbar Move: There is no reason for all the offices to move from Jammu to Srinagar & vice versa especially in the modern age of communication & video conferencing. Judiciously selected offices should only move from one place to another keeping the historicity of the custom in view. Kashmir experiences difficulties during winter months & there is no logical reason for all the Ministers from the Valley to be in Jammu during winter months when they are required more in the Valley to stay alongside their people. Similarly there doesn’t seem to be any reason for Ministers from Jammu region to be in Kashmir during summer months when they could make a difference to the lives of the people in Jammu by staying alongside them.
8. Reversion back to statehood: This is a very tricky issue. We should ask the concerned powers as to why a full-fledged state was converted to a Union Territory? My understanding is that this unusual action was taken to ensure an enabling hand to the Central Government to rid the State of anomalies that they might have observed during their sharing of power with the PDP. Have those anomalies been rectified? In my opinion – once again – they have not been. As such the question of reversion of UT to Statehood should only come when the points mentioned above are completely addressed.

Having deliberated upon some of the issues mentioned above my mind goes back to the same basic question. While the political leadership of Kashmir has once again found its feet & are utilizing their resources, acumen, understanding, knowledge & putting in concerted efforts to move the political events in a direction that will eventually put them in a pole position in the politics of Jammu & Kashmir the so called political leadership of Jammu is confused & working at cross purposes.

This is a very important & crucial time in the history of Jammu & Kashmir. This time has the same importance as the time when Maharaja Hari Singh signed the “instrument of accession” dovetailing the fate of Jammu & Kashmir with that of India. It is time that the leadership of Jammu – all across the political spectrum – puts its head together & starts thinking about the place geographical Jammu & its people should have in immediate future. They must try to figure out what is good for the people of Jammu region & formulate a plan of action to ensure a life of respect & political, administrative & economic empowerment. The window of opportunity is not going to remain open for long. In fact it is already too late & Jammuites must put their act together so that the people of both the regions – Jammu & Kashmir – are able to lead a life of equality, progress, peace & tranquility.

PS: I draw a very clear distinction between the Kashmiri political class & the common Kashmiris. It is my belief based on my experience that the common Kashmiris are wonderful people. The same cannot be said of the political leadership.