Anil Anand
Prime Minister Narendra Modi sprang a surprise while on a day-long visit to Jammu region of Jammu and Kashmir Union Territory, to mark celebrations of National Panchayati Raj Day. No, he did not announce assembly elections as some sections were wrongly expecting as it is the domain of Election Commission of India. No, he did not either touch upon the problems of the displaced Kashmiri Pandits, as the community had expected after the release of super-hit film, The Kashmir Files, or referred to the bread and butter issues being faced by the two regions- Jammu and Kashmir- of the UT and political empowerment.
The surprise element in Mr Modi’s nearly 40-minute address made at village Palli bordering Pakistan and on the outskirts of Jammu was that he refrained from making any political references or targeting the opposition (read Congress) for the “mess” in Jammu and Kashmir. Since the National Panchayati Raj Day celebration was an official function, ostensibly keeping this in mind he kept away from politics.
But not long back, during the run up to the recent Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections he had easily addressed political issues and launched a broadside against the opposition parties, while attending official functions to either lay foundations or inauguration of new projects. The protests from these parties were overlooked.
Does that imply that J&K assembly elections are not going to happen anytime soon?
On a broader scale it was a grand function befitting a National Day Celebration for which the sleepy Palli had been given a facelift to be developed as a model Panchayat, to be subsequently replicated in other Panchayats of the country. Keeping in line with the Government’s commitment to strengthen political and developmental processes at the grassroots levels through devolution of power- political and administrative- he rightly harped on the developmental agenda for Jammu and Kashmir in his inimitable style announcing big ticket projects worth over Rs 20,000 crore dominated by proposed power projects which he said would usher the UT in an era of surplus power supply and resultant economic benefits.
All these mentions were made, perhaps, unmindful of the fact that the UT was facing one of the worst power crises with long hours of scheduled and unscheduled power cuts.
There are three aspects to dealing with the issues related to Jammu and Kashmir, namely security, development and political empowerment. Furthermore, the developmental aspect has two facets long term, as the PM enunciated, and short term. It was on the issues of political empowerment and short-term developmental issues mostly related to bread and butter that people had expected him to focus as much as he could if not entirely. To be precise there are issues of heart and mind, of different variety in Jammu and Kashmir regions, that have been left unattended to.
Some of the editorial headlines in national dailies after his Jammu visit say it all:
‘One big challenge for Government of India is to win hearts and minds’: Times of India
‘A genuine political process’ is required: Indian Express
The heart and mind doctrine has different connotations for Jammu and Kashmir regions. But the issues stand on ground as these are.
These two headlines encompass the strong feeling among the people who are not only struggling against the onslaught on the local economy affecting their earnings with work and contract allotments going to the selective few from outside the UT, but also to safeguard their existential rights. These rights pertain primarily to land and employment, taken away after the abrogation of Article 370 that granted J&K a special status, for which they have been demanding a Himachal Pradesh like protection. During the past two years the leaders and authorities in the ruling dispensation had promised to take measures in this direction but there has been no headway.
Should the PM have spoken on this issue? Had he done so, it would have been a great confidence building measure particularly in Jammu the stronghold of ruling BJP.
On the issue of political empowerment a perfect beginning would be to announce reverting back to statehood status for Jammu and Kashmir. “It will be done at an appropriate time after the elections are held,” has been common refrain of the Centre. There could have been no appropriate time than this to announce this measure when PM Mr Modi was on his first visit to the UT after abrogation of Article 370 and demotion to UT status and it did not require any sanction from the Election Commission.
If there is anything that unites the two diverse regions-Jammu and Kashmir- in the post August 5, 2019 scenario after withdrawal of special status, it is the demand for giving the statehood back. However, it does not seem to be fitting in the current plan of things of the powers that be.
There are no two opinions that ‘A genuine political process is required’ as pointed out by the Indian Express editorial. The beginning in this direction was made by conducting elections to the three-tier Panchayati Raj system. But it has not given desired results as the elected Sarpanchs and Panchs could never become fully functional firstly due to impelling security reasons and secondly and more importantly by overriding bureaucratic interference. As a result these elected representatives have been protesting from time to time for redressal of their grievances related to checking this interference and giving them functional, administrative and financial autonomy. It was met with a muted response from the quarters concerned.
The bureaucratic hurdles can only be removed through bringing in an elected government at the earliest. This is the only way in a democratic set up to remove the communication bottlenecks, which is an oft repeated complaint against the Lt Governor’s administration. Since PM Modi being a great communicator firmly believes in establishing communication links with every section of the society, it is in this spirit that he should have focused on these issues while in Jammu.
Under these circumstances it has become necessary that a genuine political process is started wherein not only the Panchyati Raj system is made fully operational but also take steps to strengthen the political system rather than weakening it to the benefit of the ruling party. The only way to test the strength or weakness of the political parties is to go to the people’s court notwithstanding the chequered track-record of some of these parties.
There is no harm in new political parties coming into the field which is yet another test being performed in the political laboratory of Jammu and Kashmir. It should not be done by decimating the established political parties, no matter whatever their failures are, to clear the field for the new players as part of a systematic political strategy.
If anyone, irrespective of the party or organisation he or she belongs to, has indulged in corrupt or anti-national activities the law of the land must take a due course.
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