Mahesh Chander Sudan
We, the people of Jammu and Kashmir, have recently been reassured by Home Minister of India that the erstwhile state of J&K would regain its statehood in near future. He also referred to his speech that he made in the Parliament on Aug 5, 2019 while presenting said bill and refreshed his commitment made thereon to the people of Indian Union in general and in specific to the residents of the state of Jammu and Kashmir. India consists of states as per Article 1 of Indian Constitution. Indian Territory therefore comprises of the territories of the States and the territories of the Union Territories and any other territory that may be acquired in future. Formation of the states and Union Territories, if any, is defined in the Article 3 of the Indian constitution. It says that the Parliament of India may by law form a new state by separation of territory from any State or by uniting two or more states or parts of states or by uniting any territory to a part of any state that includes increase and diminish of the area of any State, alteration of the boundaries or name of any State. The Article also outlines a detailed procedure to be adopted by the Parliament with due recommendation of the President of India. However, there is no mention made in the said Article of the Indian Constitution with regard to demotion of a State into Union Territory. It explicitly appears that such a move shall be well considered taking all aspects of the issue into absolute diligence leaving least scope for any reversal/withdrawal of the decision. Bill for Reorganization Act of 2019 for J&K was presented in the Parliament in the first week of Aug 2019 and it was passed by two houses of Parliament in a quick succession before being presented to the President of India for Consent and due promulgation thereafter.
We, the people of Jammu and Kashmir, are about to complete one year of converted status of our erstwhile state and a precise introspection of the period compels us to ponder as to what caused our Home Minister to make reference to restoration of State status at that time when he actually moved a bill for alteration of the same. This conveyed uncertainty involved in this hurried decision and the same gets confirmed now when he refreshes his commitment made to the people of India for restoring statehood to the State of J&K. It rather challenges our understanding while finding out the reasons and compulsions responsible for this historical decision that is said to have been taken for arresting prevalent security issues in the valley and administrative discrimination meted out to other two regions of the then state by ruling politicians from valley. To an extent, it emerges that creation of Union Territory of Ladakh meets the long outstanding demand of the people of Leh and Ladakh possibly due to harsh weather, difficult terrain and altitude that badly limits public transportation affecting day to day life. Restoration of State status has also been committed by Prime Minister of India time and again in some of his deliberations while addressing people at various locations. It amplifies the fact that present leadership was aware of the public mood at large and to defer public annoyance such statements are being made.
Looking at the other side of the coin, the experience of the local people of J&K speaks low about administrative arrangements made in the changed environment that forced Union Government to cut short the tenure of earlier LG (Lieutenant Governor) and appoint an experienced politician to control situation and contain widening gap between administration and the people due to ineffective and inefficient delivery of public utility services. The administrative machinery in the present set up has hardly settled to meet the requirement of citizens across regions and the condition of health services, education system and lack of employment opportunities is causing serious concerns to the poor people of the State (now UT) and needs close monitoring with utmost accountability of concerned officials.
At this juncture, when administrative set up with limited group of Advisors under Lieutenant Governor of the Union Territory could hardly revive the Government functioning, restora-tion of State Status in near future as committed by Home Minister of the present dispensation without duly elected Government in place would result in long drawn public chaos and it would offer an opportunity to our adversaries to exploit in their interest. We are sure such high level decisions affecting public at large require professional in-depth study and their long term applicability and usability to further state welfare and not mere political mileage. Let us assume that the people of J&K are honored with restoration of State status in near future, who would own the responsibility of this short sighted decision causing avoidable loss to public exchequer, public chaos due to absence of democratically elected Government for such a long interval, injury to solemn faith of people in the system and above all our standing in the comity of nations as an independent republic. We sincerely expect leaders siting at the helm of affairs to stand the test of self-accountability and own their responsibility in denying democratic rights to poor people of the State and refrain from tossing the toy of statehood for gaining their short term goals.
We urge our leaders to stir their consciousness to empathize with poor people of Jammu and Kashmir who have been bearing absence of governance with utter silence as true patriots and nationalists during the entire process of political experimentation carried out merely to attain political mileage as no visible transformation in their routine struggle for life is evident. Leaders occupying responsible positions are expected to widen their horizon of leadership and develop people friendly methods of governance in the true sense of democracy that is known to be the government of the people, for the people and by the people. Jai Hind, Jai Bharat.
The author is Wg Cdr (Retd)
feedbackexcelsior@gmail.com
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