Kashmir, again. This time it is Guv’s action

Wajahat Habibullah
First Chief Information Commissioner of India

Death and destruction in Kashmir is no longer newsworthy of seizing headlines. What is unusual is a political initiative. Today, it is the unprecedented action by the state’s Governor in dissolving a duly elected state Assembly that has become the newsmaker, because the leading Kashmir-based political parties, which together enjoyed a workable majority in the legislature, had agreed to set aside their differences and form a government.

Surely, in any functioning democracy, this would have been regarded as a welcome step. Yet, arguments trotted out to the media, including by the august personage of the Governor himself, have been specious. Equally unconvincing is the accusation that this was done to serve the political purpose of the party ruling at the Centre because that party risks facing only reverses in the elections that must follow. Besides, the demand for early elections has been consistently that of the Opposition's Farooq Abdullah. Mehbooba Mufti's tweets make it clear that this was also her demand, particularly after the summary dismantling of her coalition government, executed in a manner also without precedent. It has been known that the parties were in discussion on forming such a coalition. Abdullah had said as much on a visit to Lucknow on November 17, as reported in the media. Yet, the Governor's sudden reaction only appeared knee-jerk. 

The question then is that given the fact that the last elections had thrown up a hung Assembly and the failure to form a functional coalition government that necessitated the imposition of President's rule, had the state government in its wisdom decided that it was time to go back to the people? One can then argue that the government, having given democracy a chance, had justifiably decided to take the only democratic recourse now open to it. Certainly, constitutional imperatives dictate recourse to early elections.  

The ills that beset Kashmir can be traced generally to the failure of democratic governance leading to the uprising in 1989-90. This has only been fitfully addressed, bringing periods of relative peace, and up to 2016, a slow, even if erratic, movement towards bringing normal life. What was required was speeding up the return to democratic governance. Statistics show that although the state and Kashmir, in particular, continued to be beset with violent disturbance, this was increasingly sporadic, with killings reduced and a sharp decline in recruitment to the terrorist fold. 

Most importantly, civil society had begun to be repulsed by violence, with elders seeking ways to discourage the young from volunteering to this course as resolution to their grievances. Official circles had begun debating the need for continuing draconian undemocratic laws like AFSPA and PSA, the latter having been amended to be replaced by the Juvenile Justice Act for application to minors. Chief Minister Omar Abdullah had recommended withdrawal of AFSPA in some areas of the state where the threat of assault on the armed forces had abated. But movement towards this end remained fitful. 

The reaction to the violence consequent on the killing of alleged terrorist Burhan Wani on July 8, which was more violence, sent the state into a spiral of violent confrontation involving the youth in unprecedented numbers. 

If the consequent disturbance that has spread across the Valley, resulting in the peaking of alienation of Kashmiri youth is to be rectified, the political leadership must take responsibility for winning back its own people. This is surely the message intended by the parties, all with representation inside the Valley, coming together to offer to form the government. Although it cannot be denied that the Governor is served by a set of outstanding and competent officers as advisors and chief secretary, this task cannot be accomplished by outsiders or even by officials. 

The restoration of popular government is then a necessary first step to regaining control, for it is the people themselves, of whom the members of the Assembly are elected representatives, who can charter the course towards  reconciliation, only after which can one begin work towards restoring normalcy.

One must hope then that with the present initiative, the J&K Governor will take forward the processes that will bring elections and seek the confidence of the people in government, which is the essence of democracy. But this will again be but a starting point. Involving the state's youth in development and enterprise, in which whenever the young people of the state, be it from Ladakh, Jammu or Kashmir, have had the opportunity to participate, have excelled surpassingly, is the only way to bring them back to constructive endeavour, during which time an elected government can work with them and with the Union Government to restore the sinews of integration that have suffered so severely over the last 30 years.