Despite anger & alienation, newfound hope in J&K

THE pledge by Sheikh Abdullah at Srinagar’s Lal Chowk on the accession to India of the then princely state of Jammu and Kashmir had the words of the great Indian poet Amir Khusrau: “Mun tu shudam tu mun shudi; mun tun shudam tu jaan shudi.” (I have become you, and you me. I, the body. You, the soul.)

But today, we have to ask ourselves the questions that Abdullah had posed on the eve of the 1975 Indira-Sheikh Accord: “Do you honestly feel that the foundations of democracy and secularism are more stable than before? Can you honestly dare say that the shackles of distrust between Kashmiris and India are broken? Have the people here (Kashmir) got the clean administration which they have long yearned for? Were they freed from the morass of unemployment and poverty?”

This was a Kashmir-centric questionnaire, but reading down Article 370 of the Constitution, Union Home Minister Amit Shah had promised in the Rajya Sabha debate on the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Bill, 2019, an end to corruption in all of J&K, including Ladakh. “In fact,” wrote Raja Muzaffar Bhatt , a Kashmiri campaigner for civil rights, within a year: “It often appears that misgovernance, nepotism and corruption have become the rule of law in government offices during the last one year.” Now, he tells me the situation is even worse.

The Forum for Human Rights, formed by eminent citizens from across the country, said in its annual report that counter-insurgency, in taking overriding priority, had vitiated the rule of law, causing widespread post-traumatic stress disorder even among children.

Every sector of commerce and industry, including the fabled handicraft industry, has been beset by massive losses. Local crafts have been substituted with cheap imitations fabricated in Amritsar and found to be more profitable even by Kashmiri entrepreneurs.

Tourism is, indeed, booming. Yes, the hotel industry in Srinagar, Gulmarg and Pahalgam has been prospering. But is the Kashmiri benefiting? The hotels are now staffed mostly with non-Kashmiris; even the menus and decor are reminiscent of Gujarat and Rajasthan. Has Kashmir got nothing to offer in either? And every hotel in Gulmarg faces expropriation on the lapse of a leasehold, with entrepreneurs in Gujarat being canvassed by the Union Government to invest in this lucrative industry.

The streets of Srinagar, including the bundh along the Jhelum and the boulevard skirting the Dal Lake, have seen frenetic activity in widening pavements and cycling tracks. The contractors are mostly from Gujarat. Who benefits? Even the labourers are mostly migrants. The roads are usually jammed with traffic, but there are no strollers on the broad pavements of the bundh or the boulevard, where I have gone walking several times without encountering a single tourist.

Domicile rules introduced by the Ministry of Home Affairs and the J&K administration have killed local employment. The Directorate of Information and Public Relations, in coordination with security agencies, has choked the media.

And the result? An acceleration of terrorist activity, now primarily across the Pir Panjal in Jammu division, from Poonch in the west to Kathua in the east, and also in north and south Kashmir (areas where the government had boasted of a cessation of militancy), targeting the defence forces.

But the essence of Abdullah’s questions and the avowed objective of the abrogation were on securing the foundations of democracy. I recount my meeting at the Tsawalgam Rest House in Kulgam in March 2021 with all 20 members of the then newly elected District Development Council (DDC), representing the CPI(M), People’s Democratic Party, National Conference (NC) and Indian National Congress. The chairman was Mohammed Afzal Parray of the CPI(M) and the vice-chair Shazia of the NC.

It may be recalled that Kulgam is the subject of a recent cryptic tweet by the Chinar Corps: “On specific inputs regarding presence of terrorists on higher reaches of Halan in Kulgam, operations launched by Security Forces on 04 Aug 23. In exchange of firing with terrorists, three (army) personnel sustained injuries and later succumbed.”

Chairman Parray began by stating that what happened on August 5 was wrong (‘Theek nahin hua’). Life had been taken from Kashmir. With no new development initiative since the elections, he could see no way forward and no way back. “What should we do?” he asked.

The councillors were stopped by security personnel from meeting members of the public. They could offer nothing to the youth, except the prospect of jail. Many youths had been arrested. Many of them remained untraced. The councillors had no assistance in ascertaining their whereabouts.

There was a litany of complaints from many parties about the ineffectiveness of the institution of the DDC, which could not do anything for the people. Officials avoided meeting the councillors. At times, their own families shunned them for being informers. The councillors were humiliated by officials over facilities like transport and security, which, they had been assured, would be provided by the police control room (PCR). The complaint was that even the PSOs provided to the councillors were spies reporting to the PCR on their activities. Rajesh Kumar Bhatt, who had been a migrant, had returned to Kulgam in 1995. He enjoyed the confidence of his colleagues in the DDC and conducted the proceedings with professional efficiency.

On our way to Srinagar, we made a stop at Seerat Jagir village, which falls within the jurisdiction of the DDC. Among the villagers present were retired government officials and teachers, shopkeepers, farmers and a number of young men, but no women. They described, in the presence of chairman Parray and other councillors, their disillusion with the DDC, even though they had turned out to vote in good numbers.

The J&K Lieutenant Governor, at a meeting held with the chairmen of DDCs at the Raj Bhawan in Jammu after the polls, reportedly claimed that the three-tier panchayati raj system had been established to empower grassroots democracy.

The recent Lok Sabha elections were held in J&K in five phases. Srinagar recorded its highest voter turnout since 1996.

It shows that despite the alienation, there is a growing realisation about the possibility that the democratic process — and not the gun — could be the panacea. Despite the simmering anger with the current political leadership, there is newfound hope. Are we ready to see it?