Statehood versus Union Territory (J&K)

Statehood versus Union Territory

(The Veterans of Political Chicanery are at it once again)

Lalit K Kaul

For some, politics is only about sloganeering and keeping the society on the boil for reasons that are an antithesis to the well being and progress of the constituencies these kinds of politicians claim to represent. Kashmiri politicians fall in this category.

Exploiting Emotions on False Issues:

It should be an art of very high calibre to keep a dead horse alive only to keep the pot of emotions of the locals boiling and to perpetually keep the accession of J&K to India as questionable. They all swore by Article 370 all the years of their existence and threatened a huge uprising of the masses if the Article was tempered with.

If Article 370 was a political agreement between the erstwhile J&K state and the Union of India, then it ceased to exist in 1964 and final stamp of its burial was put in 1974 through the Sheikh _ Indira Accord. Knowing pretty well the farcical status of Article 370, the BJP took the credit/discredit of abrogating it with clinical precision. BJP’s political aim was to settle this issue of the status of J&K in relation to the Union of India and that it remarkably asserted by designating it as Union Territory (UT) of India, while creating another UT of Ladakh. It was like pulling the carpet from underneath the feet of NC, PDP, Congress and the so called ‘separatists’ who anyway were paid agents of Pakistan and much controversial guests of India.

The Net Outcome of Statehood & Special Status:

The statehood with special status ended up with, dehumanising Kashmiri society in particular and J&K people as a whole; institutionalising prostitution in the valley; devouring young and old lives in thousands; displacing a whole lot of ethno-religious minority from the valley; poisoning the inter relationships among different religious groups; alienating people of Jammu and Ladakh from the regimes of the parties like NC, PDP and Congress because of crass discrimination against the Jammu & Ladakh regions with regards to funds allocation in the state; corrupting successive generations of Muslims with concocted history like India illegally occupied Kashmir; etcetera. Simultaneously the ruling dynasties and their friends in other parties made astronomical fortunes for their generations next to enjoy because special status afforded no accountability; the self proclaimed leaders of the ‘Azadi’ movement were not to be left behind in devouring currency from both sides of the divide and building properties with their families enjoying cozy and comfortable lives at the cost of the gullible whom they had pushed in to the fires of Hell (the ruthless power of the Indian State).

Why Object to UT Status?

The union territory of Jammu and Kashmir is administered under the provisions of Article 239 of the Constitution of India.

The President of India appoints a Lieutenant Governor (LG) for the union territory. A Council of Ministers led by a Chief Minister is appointed by the LG from the membership of the legislative assembly. Their role is to advise the LG in the exercise of functions in matters under the jurisdiction of the legislative assembly. In other matters, the Lieutenant Governor is empowered to act in his own capacity.

The legislative branch is of government is a unicameral legislative assembly, whose tenure is five years. The legislative assembly may make laws for any of the matters in the State List of the Constitution of India except "public order" and "police", which will remain the preserve of the central Government of India. The LG also has the power to promulgate ordinances which have the same force as the acts of the legislative assembly.

So, only "public order" and "police" fall outside the purview of the local government and that the LG has powers to promulgate ordinances. Surely, public order and police cannot be trusted with the local satraps because of the experiences since 1988. NC can have no claim to any kind of grievance because its elected Chief Minister fled to London for playing golf when the state had been seized by the self proclaimed freedom fighters supported covertly by all the mainstream parties and more particularly by the then Home Minister of India who belonged to PDP.

That the LG is empowered to issue ordinances is to safeguard the people of the UT from some adventurism of seasoned rogue politicians because the UT of J&K cannot afford to get traumatised once again.

The problem with these discredited politicians is that they feel helpless without police as they are habituated to use the force to meet with their political ends as also enable their supporters to engage in illegal and immoral acts like drug trafficking and flesh trade under the police cover; if not, then what’s the fuss about? It is not as much about statehood as about the control over police and denial of this control is making them uncomfortable.

UT offers Huge Opportunities:

It is the intent that matters, not the extent of power that one may wield. The intent to do good for the people is good political economy no matter how shortened or lengthened the domain of activity is. There are too many issues that need immediate and serious attention of the powers that be. For example,

1. Tourism is the backbone of the UT. It would be wrong to think that the Jammu region does not have as much potential for tourism as Kashmir. The topology of Jammu city, for example, is much more beautiful than that of Srinagar city. Only if the Jammu city can be thoroughly cleaned of its garbage dens and stinking roads followed by taking up greenery programme, the city itself will be a huge tourist attraction. The temples and the caves that host Lord Shiva’s symbol can be made attractive to the tourists who are religious by nature. Tourist spots in the UT can be made more accessible and habitat friendly, etcetera. Tourism industry generates huge employment and also revenue. Those who have been sloganeering that Kashmir can be like Switzerland, may get together to realise that dream.

2. Empowerment of the people living in villages to the extent where they feel confident to manage their own need based economic development programmes; it can be easily achieved by honest deployment of power to the Panchayats. The Panchayats are the best institutions to articulate their populace needs and chalk out various programmes for their fulfilment with the funds allocation as per the requirements. A genuine effort to make Panchayats free of the grip of the political parties will prove to be an impetus in the process of people’s empowerment. Empowering Panchayats will also infuse a feeling of inclusiveness among the people insofar as economic development related activities are concerned.

3. Development of forest lands under each Panchayat. Plantation of variety of trees suitable for the region including the fruit yielding trees will help in transforming economies at the Panchayat level.

4. Implementation of Swacch Bharat programme in all the villages, towns and cities of J&K.

5. Chalking out a plan for providing electricity to inaccessible areas through non conventional sources of energy. This by itself can be a big source of employment for the people.

6. And so on and so forth …

The idea is not to roll out a plan for economic development here, but to indicate what kind of challenges the UT has for the elected representatives of the people.

The status of a region within a Union does not define the challenges related to socio-economic betterment of the people for; they remain irrespective of the region being a ‘STATE’ or a ‘UT’.

The Way Out:

Those who are responsible for bringing the J&K region to the brink-they belong to all the political parties- and, now, the bigger question is: Post elections, can they be trusted with an opportunity to govern the UT? They may come up with new permutations and combinations; may fight elections in disguise or may boycott them. The most honest answer is; NO.

The political vacuum that exists in the Valley today needs to be filled up by new born or yet to be born political parties led by the generation that has experienced the trauma of 32 years, be they Pandits (youth) in the refugee camps or Muslims (youth) in the valley and/or the other religious minorities that went through the times of hell. They are the ones who can together start with a clean slate and together pledge to bring the J&K UT out of the abyss that it finds itself in; socially, economically, politically and inter religious cordiality.

It can be safely stated that BJP has had no role in the degenerate politics of the J&K, but it is going to be a long haul before BJP can dream of capturing power in the UT. It is so because in Kashmir valley they are not strong enough to muster a collective majority in J&K, though they seem to have made an encouraging beginning by way of being recognised as a threat to be eliminated before it eliminates the Hurriat, NC, PDP and Congress made monsters.

The Time is beckoning the youth of J&K to come forward and take plunge in to the political field by way of forming new political parties to take on such existing political formations- who traumatised the society- HEAD ON to efface them from the political canvass of the UT of J&K. There is a political void to be filled up; it is now or never.