The untimely demise of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP)-Bhartiya Janta Party (BJP) coalition government on June 19, 2018 led to the inception of a political vacuum in Jammu and Kashmir which has been filled by uncertainty, fear, and a lot of chutzpah.
The BJP-led Union government’s move to downgrade Jammu and Kashmir into two union territories – J&K and Ladakh – through the J&K Reorganisation Act, 2019 marked the beginning of a tectonic shift whose repercussions continue to be felt even today.
Jammu and Kashmir entered its sixth year without an elected government on Tuesday, June 20. During this time, the UT has gone through monumental political, economic and administrative changes that have left even the judiciary frustrated, not to talk of the commoners.
A series of constitutional, legal and administrative changes have centralised power in the hands of the Union government, which runs Jammu and Kashmir through a lieutenant governor.
While India has been flaunting its support for a rules-based order and its democratic and secular credentials on global platforms, democracy remains suspended, journalists are harassed and a state of pervasive fear that characterises life in authoritarian regimes prevails in Jammu and Kashmir.
Hundreds of Kashmiri residents, including four journalists, have been taken into preventive detention on what many believe are trumped-up charges of unlawful activities and supporting militants.
Properties worth thousands of crores have been seized under the anti-terror law. Several dozen employees have been fired without getting a chance of being heard.
The absence of an elected legislature or lawmakers has turned the ‘crown of India’ into a khap panchayat where a few, unelected men take decisions on the behalf of masses. An autonomous state with a rich, syncretic past has turned into an unofficial laboratory for ‘Project Hindutva’ which visualises hollowing out the powers of states (and ultimately the people), and concentrating them in the hands of a few leaders using the alibi of national security.
But what happens in Jammu and Kashmir doesn’t stay in Jammu and Kashmir.
Much like J&K, the Union government has firmed its control over Delhi by pushing an ordinance on administrative services in the national capital, despite protests by chief minister Arvind Kejriwal – who had celebrated the reading down of Article 370. Without any regard for the sick and the students, internet services remain suspended in violence-torn Manipur for weeks now.
Yesterday, it was J&K which suffered these brutalities. Today, it is Delhi and Manipur. Tomorrow it is going to Karnataka or some other part of the country.
Kashmiris stunned
This missing accountability explains the deceptive calm on the streets of Kashmir that burnt with rage only a few years ago.
Kashmiris are perhaps stunned by the manner in which the saffron party has targeted its political opponents and stifled the calls for accountability while the courts merely pay lip service to the idea of ending the slow erosion of citizens’ fundamental rights.
“If they can do it with them [opposition politicians], what chance do Kashmiris stand?” goes the argument in Kashmir.
“When you see that the democracy and the institutions which were meant to uphold it are compromised in the country, you feel helpless to espouse your genuine democratic cause. It is the calm after being overpowered,” said a former J&K minister, who doesn’t want to be named.
As democracy remains suspended and J&K continues to sink deeper into a political black hole, the Himalayan region offers spectacular visuals of “tourism porn” to support the Modi government’s ‘project normalcy’ in Kashmir, while the underlying fear is cloaked by the innuendoes of “responsive administration” and “grassroots empowerment”.
Visitors taking photos with the ‘I Love Kashmir’ installation in the background in Srinagar. Photo: Special arrangement
Using the maxim ‘every saint has a past and every sinner a future’, the BJP is finding new friends and political wannabes to break into Kashmir’s electoral arena. Yet, the party seems to have failed miserably in getting its calculation right.
Nothing perhaps exemplifies this failure more succinctly than the political skullduggery involving the Election Commission of India and the government of India over announcing the schedule of holding assembly elections in J&K.
If there was peace in J&K, as the Modi government has been repeatedly stating, why is the UT without an elected government for more than five years? If there are no security concerns over holding urban local body polls in J&K, what is stopping the conduct of assembly elections as well?
Far from normalising Jammu and Kashmir, the situation has only gotten more uncertain in the past five years. While the militancy is at its lowest ebb in the Valley, it has turned more lethal and its spread has extended over the Pir Panjal mountains and Chenab Valley into the Jammu region which has emerged as the new epicentre of militants.
In recent months, some of the deadliest attacks on civilians and security forces – which have killed dozens, including pilgrims and children – have been staged by militants in Jammu. Incomprehensibly, the Modi government has still managed to sell the ‘Kashmir is peaceful’ hoax to his party supporters and the outer world without much scrutiny.
However, the silence of Kashmiris on what is happening in J&K may not be an endorsement of the Union government’s policies. “Just go through any local newspaper to find out how many raids and arrests are reported officially every day. In a closed and small society like Kashmir, that is sufficient to create fear,” said a senior PDP leader and another former minister of J&K.
“But the anger is seeping underground. If it will come out, how and when, remains to be seen,” he added.