Polls can put J&K on road to reconciliation

Wajahat Habibullah
India’s First Chief Information Commissioner 

VOICING the hope for early elections following the declaration of Governor’s rule in Jammu and Kashmir, I had argued in an article in The Tribune that the restoration of a popular government was a necessary first step for its people, of whom the members of the Assembly are elected representatives, to themselves begin to chart a course towards reconciliation in a deeply riven society.

Nevertheless, it is essential that the elections be seen not as an end but as a starting point for such restoration, surely the greatest challenge today before the state and indeed before the Union of India, even if barely recognised as such. Involving the state’s youth in development and enterprise is the only way to bring them back to constructive endeavour. Whenever young people of the state, be it from Ladakh, Jammu or Kashmir, have had the opportunity to participate, they have excelled, going by the heavy intake into the all-India Services in the past decade. It is only a government of their choice that can work with them and the Centre to repair the sinews of integration severed over the past 30 years.

For this, the political leadership must take responsibility for winning back their own people, particularly the youth. Although it cannot be denied that the Governor is served by a set of outstanding officers as Advisers and Chief Secretary, with whom I have served, this task cannot be accomplished by outsiders or even by officials, however professional.

This is what we must read from the statement of one who today can claim to have emerged from the detritus of the recently failed coalition government as the state’s tallest leader. Appealing to all its diverse regions at a recent political event in Jammu, former Chief Minister Farooq Abdullah announced, “I make a promise that within 30 days of being voted to power with absolute majority, we will bring the resolution for regional autonomy. It is a matter close to people’s hearts. With the Almighty’s blessings, I am in good health and will see it become a reality during my lifetime.”

Autonomy within India has been the theme of the National Conference ideology since Sheikh Abdullah led the state into Accession in the face of an invasion by Pathan tribesmen, launched by Pakistan’s army in October 1947, recurring in the Sheikh-Indira Accord of 1975 and the Autonomy Resolution of the state Assembly with Farooq Abdullah at the helm in 2002.

Abdullah’s statement has expectedly raised the hackles of opponents. Although not widely known, however, the districts of Ladakh already enjoy considerable autonomy, particularly in determining development schemes under their empowered Hill Development Councils, which have helped secure peace in Kargil and Leh, despite sporadic communal tension. Abdullah’s remark recognises that this model needs to be strengthened and replicated in the remaining regions listed in the state’s Autonomy Resolution. Scarcely a call for secession, it reflects the determination to bring public participation in governance, so lamentably lacking in the state thus far despite its own autonomy guaranteed by the Constitution. The PDP, principal political opponent of the National Conference in J&K, has an autonomy plan of its own crafted by its present MP Muzaffar Beig during Mufti Mohammad Sayeed’s tenure as Chief Minister and presented before the then Prime Minister’s Round Table in Srinagar.

There have been repeated accusations from the political leadership of J&K that the guarantee of Article 370 stands eroded and the state’s Autonomy Resolution sought to restore it. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has appealed for a review of the Article and the BJP had made its abrogation an election issue, but it was dropped in the Common Minimum Programme of the ill-fated PDP-BJP coalition that recently came undone. Yet, given the example of Ladakh, strengthening public participation in governance at the grassroots level, which is the objective of the 73rd and 74th Amendments of the Constitution, and promoting local self-government, far from being secessionist, is a means of bringing closer conformity to the vision of Mahatma Gandhi and the spirit of the Constitution.

In pleading for what he termed Gram Swaraj, the Father of the Nation had said: “My idea of Gram Swaraj is that it is a complete republic, independent of its neighbour for its own vital wants and yet interdependent for many in which dependence is a necessity.” Article 243 (d) of the Constitution defines the panchayat as an “institution (by whichever name called) of self-government constituted under 243B for the rural areas.”

It will be argued that given the state of law and order in J&K, particularly in Kashmir, the time is not right for holding the elections. Conceding such an argument would amount to a capitulation of its primary duty by any government claiming to be a democracy. Whether the voters participate or not is the right and the responsibility of the citizens. Providing for the exercise of that right is the duty and responsibility of the government. Given the most recent experience in the state, including the failure of the Election Commission of India to hold elections in the Anantnag Lok Sabha constituency despite constitutional compulsion, it can be assumed that participation in the elections in Kashmir will be low, even negligible. This is readily explicable as arising from the conviction, particularly among the disgruntled youth, that the elections are only for acquisition of power and never a craving for service. It is for the political leadership to assuage such cynicism and reassure constituents that they will work with and for the people.

Participation in the electoral process is only one aspect of participation in governance, which includes development. We already have the precedent of Sajjad Lone, once a leading dissident and heir to Hurriyat leader Abdul Ghani Lone, joining the democratic process. Sajjad is leading the Peoples’ Conference, a BJP ally which controls the Srinagar municipality. If we are to move towards resolution of the issues that have blighted Kashmir’s history since the birth of our Republic, it must be with the participation of all sections of public opinion united in the supreme exercise of democratic liberty, which is making the choice of a government.