Having secured 49 seats in the recently concluded Assembly polls, National Conference, Congress, and CPM will form a new Government in Srinagar. At the national level, they are part of the I.N.D.I. Alliance’s agenda of ousting Prime Minister Narendra Modi. On the regional level, their prioritised agenda, according to the NC manifesto, is restoration of Statehood, abrogation of the State Reorganisation Act, restoration of special status, including the two articles of the Indian Constitution, development and employment for the unemployed youth.
Long back, the Home Minister had said that the Statehood would be restored at its proper time. New Delhi remains committed. Hence, it is no issue but of course, proper time will be decided by the Home Ministry.
Multiple Challenges
As regards development and youth employment, it all depends on resources. J&K is incapable of raising funds to meet these requirements. The problem facing it is that the days are gone when the NC blackmailed the Congress Government and squeezed huge funds but refused to submit the account of expenditure for billions of rupees. The present Government will not succumb to blackmail. Thus, State-Centre relations have to be restructured along new and unprecedented norms with which neither the State political leadership nor the bureaucratic chapter is happy.
Not A Solitary Seat from Jammu
Another challenge before the new Government is that it hasn’t won a single seat from Doda, Kishtwar, Jammu, Samba, Reasi, Udhampur and Kathua constituencies all falling in the Jammu division. It means these important areas will not have representation in the Government. Majority vote is not the only criterion in a heterogeneous democracy, representative character of the Government is a compulsion.
Dr Farooq has crossed all boundaries of propriety in denigrating Modi. He cannot face him. So he is using his son as an alibi, and it is through him that he schemed to convey to the Centre that the new Government would like reconciliation knowing well that Article 370 is not going away in any way
BJP representative in J&K, Ram Madhav clarified in a press interview that though coalition no doubt is an option in a democratic process but his party has not concentrated on the idea. Maybe his experience with a coalition with the PDP in the past could serve as a guiding factor.
The nature of the relationship between the National Conference and Congress in the coalition is also an issue. We can elaborate this aspect only when the formal structure of the Council of Ministers is known. How the prospective incumbents will react to it is yet to be ascertained. Congress has been punished in Jammu. Despite the party’s infamous and scandalous role, the traditional Congress in Jammu had tried to play a holier-than-thou role in castigating BJP.
One very important outcome from this analysis relates to the future of the Jammu region. If the Valley-centric new Government remains irreconcilable on Article 370 issue by putting forth the argument that revocation of the State Reorganisation Act of 2019 is its commitment to the people of the Valley, then the demand of Jammu for a separate entity gets immensely strengthened based on regional polarisation. What options are before the new Government other than those of forgetting the dominance of the Valley over Jammu and sharing power with the Opposition by devising a mechanism that would respond to the twin demand of power-sharing and ultimate recognition of Jammu as an equal and at-par entity?
Omar does understand this complex situation and has also mildly hinted at it but any reconciliation and re-adjustment cannot be endorsed to Farooq and his rabid anti-New Delhi coterie. Moreover, Farooq is committed to the INDIA alliance in supporting the ouster of Modi, who, as the situation indicates, is neither bent to their demands nor quit office until the full term ending in 2029.
Should the new Government choose the path of reconciliation and cooperation, the first and foremost step in that direction would be a clear time table for the return and rehabilitation of the displaced people, especially Kashmiri Pandits
Another ticklish issue that is going to lend strength to a spectre of confrontation with the Centre is the powers conferred upon the LG of nominating five members to the Assembly. Omar Abdullah has made a couple of statements arguing that the powers of nominating five members for the Assembly should rest with the Assembly and not the LG as that would be a denial of democratic dispensation. Will the new government rush to the Supreme Court for its intervention in the administrative arena, is anybody’s guess.
In short, the new Government in Srinagar is now at the crossroads of history. Will it choose the path of sanity, collaboration and reconciliation in the interests of the people of J&K or will it continue along the path of confrontation and clash and thus set in another decade or two of political inactivity and paralysis for the State? Should the new Government choose the path of reconciliation and cooperation, the first and foremost step in that direction would be a clear time table for the return and rehabilitation of the displaced people, especially the Kashmiri Pandits back in the Valley strictly according to their convenience. This announcement will give great stability and public support of the Indian nation to the new government in J&K. The new government cannot escape shouldering this responsibility.
