Wg Cdr Mahesh Chander Sudan (Retd)
We, the people of Jammu and Kashmir, have been experiencing governance of public resources by limited team of administrators in absence of elected representatives since 2018 due to sudden fall of coalition between PDP and BJP. Despite constitutional caution and condition of forming next democratically elected Government within six month, no efforts on ground were made to hold Legislative elections by Union Government as a long term political motive precisely to hold the reign by the ruling political entity. This left people of Jammu and Kashmir with no alternative than to suffer deficit governance of public resources by Governor and his team, followed by reorganization of the then state into two union territories vide Reorganization Act of 2019 wef 31 Oct 2019 that again pushed the governance of newly formed UT with more concise and limited team of LG and his only advisor who are considered to be adequately competent in place of a large team of 90 democratically elected public representatives as established vide above quoted Reorganization Act duly passed by our parliament. The word “deficit” do remind me of my college days where our class Lecturer used to teach us the concept of “Deficit Financing “in Economics. Though, it is believed that manageable Deficit Financing ignites growth but deficit governance of public resources especially in a democracy may not augur well.
The newly formed UT of J&K, as per Reorganization Act 2019, has been provided with 114 assembly segments in total. Out of these 114 assembly segments, 24 seats have been reserved for representatives from Pakistan Occupied Kashmir (POK) leaving 90 seats divided between two regions of the UT i.e 43 for Jammu and 47 for Kashmir. It thus implies that a Legislature comprising of 90 representatives that has been provided with 10% members to form a Council of Ministers headed by Chief Minister would inherently advise Lieutenant Governor for effective governance of public resources. Another important and critical aspect of the given arrangement is that all members would be elected democratically and represents different sections of the society in the interest of equity and justice. No other temporary arrangement appointed to assist Lieutenant Governor could therefore substitute it. The prolonged arrangement of governance in the JKUT since 2018 with a very limited and concise team apparently hurts the spirit of democracy and affects the public morale. It generates a sense of helplessness amongst poor people of JKUT who are left voiceless in the present system of governance.
The delay in holding democratic process of electing public representatives is unhealthy and in the long run affects inclusivity in day to day functioning of the UT. Deficit governance of the public resources not only hurts the State Domestic Gross Product that ultimately results in lower growth rate. It is evident from the last updated GDP growth of Indian States/UTs by the Ministry of Statistics and Program implementation as on 02 Mar 2021 that JKUT is one of the five slowest growing major state/UT of India with 4.1% growth rate. The states like Gujrat, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, and Madhya Pradesh could hold status of fastest growing states due to well established democratically elected governments that could dispense good governance without any visible deficiency in their performance. Deficit governance therefore hurts the interest of poor people who in the bargain get politically victimized owing to the failure of government mechanism. To safeguard public interest against such political designs, the constitution of India specifically provides under Article 356 that a state whose legislature is unable to function for any of the conditions specified therein, the Union Government of India can impose President Rule with the approval of Indian Parliament initially for six months, and in normal course efforts are to be made for holding fresh elections within the period as provided in the constitution of India. However, Article 356 of Indian Constitution is now not applicable to JK UT and Rule 73 of Reorganizations Act 2019 has been applied to prevent any constitutional and administrative vacuum wef 31 Oct 2019 with no time limit specified therein and the same was Ex post facto approved by Union Cabinet on 20 Nov 2019.
It may be appreciated that the application of Rule 73 of Reorganizations Act has been invoked to avoid any constitutional vacuum and to strengthen governance of public resources of JKUT for larger welfare of the people, the President of India issued a proclamation to assume all functions of the Government of Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir and empowered Lieutenant Governor of JKUT to exercise all powers vested in him as the President of India. It may also be equally justifiable to infer that a well-structured team of advisors and administrators was resultantly appointed by the LG to activate government machinery for ensuring effective public delivery system to avoid any shortfall. However, over the period of time and with change of LG, the team of advisors has been trimmed down just to one Advisor that apparently conveys deficit composition of the team for advising Lieutenant Governor to attain fruitful administration of public resources in the larger interest of the people of JKUT.
A deep rooted uncertainty about legislative elections and inadequately structured team of LG for dispensing governance of public resources in JKUT is affecting welfare of the people at large. This has not only arrested GDP growth but also earned highest unemployment besides facing administrative failures in holding competitive examinations on time in free and fair manner. Cancellation of selection lists of Accounts, police and other government departments are recent victims of the system that is badly plagued with corruption.
Another glaring example of Administrative failure on the part of LG and his team invited intervention of honorable High Court of JKUT to cancel all examinations being conducted by JKSSB, a premier Recruitment Agency of the UT, as the agency hired to conduct these examinations is tainted one. Even the contract entered with the agency has also been quashed by the honorable court. A most sensitive part of Indian Territory bordering our hostile neighborhood left to be administered and governed by LG and his only Advisor for last couple of months without inclusive participation of local political leadership that had resulted undoubtedly in deficit governance. The poor people of the JK have been left to suffer highest Unemployment, abnormal inflation, denial of participation in day to day governance of public resources either directly or through their elected/nominated representatives as desired in any democratic set up those functions for upholding equity and justice in public life.
We, the people of JKUT, make an earnest appeal for early restoration of democratic right to vote so that the concept of self-rule as enshrined in the Constitution of India and practiced democratically throughout the Indian Union reaches people of Jammu and Kashmir till last person in the queue and empowers him to decide his own destiny in a free and fair manner so that spirit of democracy strengthens him more vigorously to discourage our adversaries to take any chance.
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