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| Jammu Kashmir must not suffer Governor's Rule | | | Hari Om | 1/9/2015 11:46:14 PM |
| Political developments which have been unfolding in Kashmir and New Delhi in the wake of the highly fractured mandate that the people of Jammu & Kashmir (J&K) gave in the just-held Assembly elections suggest that the State is slowly but surely heading towards the Governor's Rule. J&K Governor Mr NN Vohra would be left with no other option but to invoke Section 92 of the J&K Constitution to bring the State under his own direct rule on January 19 if any political party/parties failed to form the next Government in the State by that date. In fact, he on January 8 sent a report to the Union Government suggesting Governor's Rule on the ground that immediate formation of government seemed "difficult" in the state. Governor Vohra took this step following the acting Chief Minister Omar Abdullah's meeting with him during which the latter reportedly told him that he didn't want to continue as caretaker Chief Minister, as the State needed a full-time administrator to deal with the situation. The life of the J&K Legislative Assembly will be over on January 19, as it was constituted on that date six years ago. J&K is the solitary State in the Union where the life of the Assembly is six years and which can be kept under the Governor's Rule for a maximum period of six months.
It needs to be underlined that the people of State didn't give full mandate to any political party for the third time in a row. The four major players in the State were the two parties-in power - National Conference (NC) and Congress -, the main opposition People's Democratic Party (PDP) and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). The NC won 15 seats, as against its 2008 tally of 28, and the Congress 12 seats, as against its 2008 tally of 17 seats.
The PDP won 28 seats - 25 out of 46 seats from Kashmir and three from Jammu - and secured 22.3 per cent of the total votes polled. The PDP could improve its tally only by 7 seats despite the fact that it campaigned against the "unpopular" NC-Congress coalition Government for almost six years and did all that it could to convince the people of Kashmir that it alone could advance the Kashmiri cause and halt the BJP's march towards the Valley. According to one estimate, the PDP leadership addressed more than 2000 small and big public meetings during the past six years to enlist the people's support for its self-rule (read limited accession with India) agenda. The BJP won 25 out of 37 seats from Jammu on developmental plank and got the highest number of votes - 23.4 per cent. In 2008, the BJP had won 11 seats - all from Jammu and sprung a big surprise in May 2014 by winning both the Lok Sabha seats in Jammu and the lone Ladakh Lok Sabha seat and securing 32.4 per cent of the total votes polled.
The Congress and the NC have offered "unconditional" support to the PDP, but with no result. The PDP has only appreciated their gestures and not taken any step whatsoever to forge an alliance with them to form the Government. The reasons are obvious and the most important reason is that all the three, which share between them 55 seats, are virtually one-community parties. The formation of the PDP, the NC and the Congress coalition Government would mean exclusion of Jammu, which is two-time bigger than Kashmir in terms of land area and houses almost half of the State's population - over 70 per cent Hindus, Sikhs and Christians and nearly 30 per cent Muslims. The PDP think-tanks know the implications of exclusion of Jammu from government and, hence, no forward movement as far as the formation of the PDP-led NC and Congress coalition government is concerned. Not just this, the State Government needs money to meet the day-to-day needs of the people, as also for disbursing salaries to its over 4.5 lakh employees and rebuilding parts of the Valley and Jammu province which were devastated by the September floods and heavy rains. The PDP leadership is not that naïve that it would ignore the fact that it is the BJP-led NDA that is well-entrenched in New Delhi and that it alone can ensure free flow of funds. J&K is a bankrupt State, notwithstanding the fact it gets the highest per capita Central Assistance after Nagaland and is also a "Special Category" State. According to the Transparency International India, J&K is the "second most corrupt" State in the country.
The fact of the matter is that the PDP leadership wants to do business with the BJP and it has already approached it to discuss the power-sharing formula and the vice-versa. However, the problem is that the PDP wants to do business with the BJP on its own terms and conditions. The PDP's demands include withdrawal of all the Central laws and Central institutions which were extended to the State after August 9, 1953; withdrawal of the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) from certain areas of the State; India-Pakistan talks over J&K to address its "external dimension"; negotiations with the Hurriyat leadership to address the "internal dimension" of the issue; office of the Chief Minister for a full term of six years; transfer to the State Government of all the five NHPC-managed and controlled hydel power projects totalling installed capacity of 1,724 MW in J&K; and so on. The PDP has made it loud and clear that it will not dilute its stand on its core agenda. It is this inflexibility that has culminated in a deadlock between the PDP and the BJP and created a situation that would only make the State Governor to exercise his constitutional powers to bring the administration under his direct control.
Convinced that the rigid attitude of the PDP could lead to political instability and imposition of the Governor's Rule in J&K, BJP bigwig and Union Minister Arun Jaitley, point-man of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the one who is aware of the complexities of the situation in the State, has taken the initiative to break the impasse and facilitate the formation of Government. "It is very difficult for political parties to give up their ideological position," he on January 5 said, and suggested that "a government in the sensitive State should be based on three issues: sovereignty, good governance for developmental activities and regional balance".
He urged the parties involved to "put their heads together for the larger interest of the State" and asserted that this is the only course left to avoid the Governor's Rule in J&K. "The BJP-led government at the Centre would not be happy to impose Governor's Rule in the State as I think if there is one State which needs a popular government, it is J&K," he said. His statement was as significant as it was self-explanatory. Indeed, Arun Jaitely put forth a reasonable suggestion worthy of consideration. The PDP would do well to seize the opportunity offered to it by Arun Jaitely and adopt a flexible approach. It needs to appreciate the Union Minister's three lynchpins - Indian sovereignty, good governance and regional balance. Time is running out and running out very fast. The PDP has to exercise a choice between the Governor's Rule, which would negate the whole electoral exercise that was absolutely free and fair, and the BJP's rational power-sharing formula, which is based on the cardinal principles of state craft. It must remember that an overwhelming majority of population in J&K wants a democratically-elected Government in place at the earliest, as they didn't vote in large numbers for the Governor's Rule. Even otherwise, it has no mandate to impose its will on Jammu and Ladakh, where the people voted overwhelmingly for peace, development, good governance and national unity and territorial integrity. It would be regarded as a sinner in case it failed to appreciate the nature of the 2014 mandate in J&K and the State comes under the Governor's rule. Courtesy: www.niticentral.com |
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