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| Mission Kashmir Accomplished? | | | Rameshwar Singh Jamwal | 9/2/2019 10:20:20 PM |
| The recently passed J&K Reorganization Act (Act No.34 of 2019), in its statement of objects and reasons, says that the objective behind reorganization of the state was the prevailing internal security situation prevailing in the state, fuelled by cross border terrorism in the existing state of J&K . These reasons, especially Terrorism, the secessionist movement and its corollaries, corruption, drug abuse, discrimination with Jammu and Ladakh and many other ills, forced the Narender Modi led government to take this unprecedented step. While the step has created euphoria in the country and has been hailed by an overwhelming majority in Jammu and Ladakh, the beneficiaries of the system or those terminally and pathologically opposed to Narender Modi, are on the war path. But the million dollar question is, will the passing of the act achieve its objectives and solve the problems of this terminally ill state or we will be engulfed in a cesspool of bloodshed and turmoil. So far, the indications are that the two major regions of the erstwhile state, Jammu and Ladakh, will chart their own course of progress and prosperity, notwithstanding the happenings or future happenings in Kashmir. Whether Kashmir chooses prosperity or peril will depend upon the sagacity of its leadership, old or emerging new and that of Hurriyat Conference and of many other shades, where they want their people to go. Prime Minster Narender Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah have often talked about the three families of Kashmir, which have brought the state to the present mess. These three may have cornered the big pie but about one thousand or so, powerful families of Kashmir and of some hilly Districts of Jammu, have also benefitted from this system, who all need to be put to the mat.
Gradually, as the restrictions in Kashmir are lifted and the politicians get released, much will depend upon the role of this leadership of Kashmir, which recourse it wants for Kashmir. As Kashmir is also at the centre stage of Pakistan politics, the powerful ISI and the terrorist heads it nurtures will not be sitting idle and allow Modi to take the state out of their grip. It needs to be tackled at different level but there is also a dire need for exceptional leadership in Kashmir, leaders who can successfully navigate change in the changed circumstances, realize the changed dynamics and the political eco system in which they have to operate and it requires creative vision and the capacity to chart and act upon that vision, which is the need of the hour. The existing leadership of Kashmir was expected to show these qualities in its most trying times in recent past. They were expected to express their ideas as to how they could steer the state out of turbulent waters in the face of international forces working to weaken it,but they faltered and showed little pragmatism and vision.
These leaders, representing different shades of political opinion in Jammu and Kashmir, were expected to proactively take charge of fostering good governance and the evolution of visionary and transformational leaderships in the state, during their stints when they were at the helm of affairs, but have little to show as their achievements. These three and their acolytes, though claiming to be the voice of J&K, have shown little regard to the real voice of citizens of the erstwhile state of J&K .The unfortunate part of politics of J&K is that those claiming to represent J&K have never represented the true aspirations of the two other regions of state, Jammu and Ladakh. The old guard of politicians in J&K, mainly represented by National Conference and PDP and even Congress, to some extent, have always based their politics on parochial politics of valley, never allowing any politician of stature to emerge in other regions, who could disagree with their valley centric politics. This suited their politics, as two of these were regional parties and by playing this type of politics, they continued their sway in valley politics and that of state as well.
So far as leadership of Huriyat is concerned, some of them try to present a modern look, but their politics thrives on exploiting the religious sentiments of a few thousand residents of interior Srinagar or of few pockets of North, central and South Kashmir and have never shown any pragmatic view as to how state can progress and we should not expect anything positive from them.
The statements made by these leaders of the erstwhile state, in the past, sometimes bordering secessionism, hardly represented the ethos of the J&K as a whole and do not bode well for the progress of the UT. This should be worrisome, as this leadership has to a role to play in Kashmir politics for sometime, which will have repercussions in Jammu region as well. They, whenever they get released, must spell out as to how J&K could progress by getting more autonomy or self rule. There are so many takers of this idea in Kashmir but nobody has come out with clear definition as to how Autonomy or Self Rule could ensure progress for Kashmir. If these leaders want the jurisdiction of India in only three-four fields, then they should have spell out as to why rest of India would appreciate their hard earned money being invested in sectors in our UT, where it can't be accounted for and India has no say. And can J&K develop its roads, bridges, health sector, education sector, information technology, lakes, waterways, electricity and so many other related fields, when it has no money even to pay for its employee's wages. These leaders must understand that India has changed in recent past and in an age, where Indian economic and political strength is being admired even by its some hostile neighbors, where they are seeing India as an opportunity rather than as a rival, the future of Kashmir can be secure only in a secular India and not in a failing state like Pakistan or in independence or self rule. Instead of treading on this path of future confrontation, secession and ultimate destruction, they must seek innovative ways to effectively harness and leverage the immense but largely untapped and under-utilized resources of the youth of the J&K, which are being wasted in nation destroying measures, to ensure better governance and capacity building initiatives for betterment of J&K. Therefore, instead of criticizing Delhi for every ill in J&K and projecting Kashmir as a victim and clamoring for return to the bygone era of Article 370, 35-A or of autonomy, self governance etc. and projecting these as panacea for every ill of state, and only complaining about BJP, RSS or Delhi, they must proactively take charge of fostering leadership/governance capacity building in the leftover UT of J&K. Clear success, to whatever extent possible with limited resources and limited powers in the new political setup, with or without assistance from the national leadership, will hopefully create the moral imperative for, and put pressure on, the central leadership to provide more assistance to those who are working tirelessly to foster good governance in the state and support their case for more powers.
In this entire scenario, one worrisome scenario, is the absence of voice of Jammu. There is not even a single leader in entire Jammu region, who has shown future vision for Jammu in the emerging situation or has attained the political weight, these young leaders of Kashmir have got, who only speak only for Kashmir, not for the Jammu region. We may have some ex-ministers from BJP or Congress, from Jammu region, but their political vision and stature is far behind the leadership of Kashmir. Any politician from Jammu region, with a political vision, was never allowed to grow in any valley centric regional political setup. Only a mainstream National party with nationalistic views could groom such leadership but local BJP has also failed to look beyond their own average stock. We have recently seen the benefits of having a Governor appointed by a mainstream political party of India, who is trying to shift balance of power in favour of pro Indian forces and this paradigm shift in policy is only because of his grooming in National and nationalistic politics. The central leadership of all National level political parties must make efforts to groom young leaders with nationalistic views and political vision who could be assets for India in coming decades, who have the capacity to occupy centre stage in J&K politics, as Kashmir cauldron is unlikely to be allowed to be settled in near future by Pakistan. Even if present leadership of Pakistan is made to abandon its Kashmir policy because of international opinion or Indian pressure, the jehadi culture infused in young minds of Kashmir is unlikely to be erased from their mental repertoire so soon, unless we go for a mass behavioral engineering in Kashmir. It will continue to give trouble in the coming years, in one form or the other and the geo-political interests of Pakistan will never allow it to die it so soon and hence the need for an array of visionary pro India voices in Jammu & Kashmir. |
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