Address The Deepening Alienation In Kashmir: M Y Tarigami
Mohammed Yousuf Tarigami
Two years have passed since an assault on the basic structure on the constitution was completed on the 5th August 2019 when Article 370, 35-A was nullified unilaterally and arbitrarily without any consultation with the actual stake holders of erstwhile state of Jammu & Kashmir. By annulling the Constitution of Jammu & Kashmir, the BJP government violated all the principles of constitutionality.
Downgrading the historic state into two separate union territories and also ignoring the resolution moved by me and adopted by J&K Legislature on 3rd March, 2004 to preserve the unity and secular character of J&K State has set a dangerous precedent–any state can cease to exist as a state and can be carved up into any number of fragments anytime, by misusing the provision of governor’s rule. Thereby the very existence of a state becomes a matter of discretion for the Centre, a substantial step towards a unitary state. Pertinently, the S. R. Bommai case verdict of 1994 brought President’s rule vide Article 356 under judicial review precisely to prevent it’s arbitrary abuse by Central governments.
The abrogation of Article 35A made the status of Permanent Residents of J&K redundant. Protection of jobs and land rights ceased to operate which deepened the alienation and sense of insecurity in all the regions. The economy of J&K has virtually collapsed as tourism, trade, agriculture horticulture and handicrafts sectors were badly hit. Employment opportunities are shirking. Is corruption any less and governance any better? The fact remains not a single claim of those in authority stands the test of the scrutiny.
While the rhetoric of development in terms of job creation has been on the lips of the Central leadership, there has been little substantial progress in practicality. An estimated 2.5 lakh youth registered themselves as unemployed in a drive by the Department of Labour and Employment. These include PhD, MPhil and postgraduate students. If we add the factor of heightened competition due to induction of domiciles from the rest of India to this, then the issue of unemployment is only going to worsen with time, and this ticking bomb can explode in various extreme ways.
The situation of education is not better either. The lockdown imposed on August 5 had already led to closure of schools and colleges, even before the onset of Covid-19 pandemic in 2020. At a time when offline transitioned to online, the State could not cope up due to frequent internet shutdowns, essentially violating the right to access internet and logically the right to free speech as well as education. The internet shutdown after August 5 was the “longest recorded in a democracy”. Among a total of 540 shutdowns in India from 2012 to 2021, 315 were witnessed in J&K alone.
Over the last two years, it has become amply clear why the Government of India was so insistent on taking such drastic unlawful measures. We have seen that people of J&K are being divided into smaller units, ripped off their jobs and rights over their natural resources. Unconscionable suppression of civil and democratic rights continues unabated. Indiscriminate arrests and harassment of all sections of our people including employees on different pretexts continues. The recent order to not provide security clearance for passport and government services to anyone involved in “law & order” and “stone pelting” cases is one more addition. “Adverse police report” cannot be a substitute for being found guilty in a court of law. Termination of some employees for past activities without giving them a chance to be heard, has created a fear psychosis among the employees in general. Local officers are being side-lined and the abolition of State Cadre is one more step towards disempowerment of the people.
It is most unfortunate that the judicial challenges against this abrogation—as a violation of the Constitution—continue to remain pending before the Supreme Court even after two years. I filed another application on 27th August, 2021 seeking an early listing of my writ petition, which was admitted in December 2019. Despite the facts that the challenges to the constitutional validity of orders dated 05-08-2019 as well as J&K (Reorganisation) Act, 2019 is pending before the Hon’ble Supreme Court, the Central Government has inter alia, taken irreversible actions including constitution of Delimitation Commission to mark Parliamentary and Assembly boundaries, amendment of J&K Development Act, allowing persons who are not permanent residents to buy land in J&K, if it is not an agricultural land, closing down of institutions such as J&K State Women Commission, J&K State Accountability Commission, J&K State Consumer Protection Commission and J&K State Human Rights Commission etc.
As Kashmir awaits its third winter after the fateful 2019, an approach of heavy-handedness, rampant pursuit of Hindutva and constitutional impropriety has created an environment of despondency and mass alienation within J&K that is inimical to the interest of the country, including the interest of all the regions, communities of erstwhile historic state of Jammu & Kashmir. The situation is explosive and can be particularly damaging in an atmosphere of growing uncertainties in the sub-continent. The recent developments in Afghanistan are bound to make the situation far more complex.
The story of Kashmir’s relationship with Indian union is a complicated tale that has many complex layers. It is an irony that in a country, which claims to be the biggest secular democratic republic, the relationship between New Delhi and the people of Kashmir continues to deteriorate progressively. And in this connection, the 5th of August 2019 decision and consequent developments have only weakened the bond and made the situation untenable for Kashmiris physically and psychologically.
The abrogation came exactly around the completion of three-decades of insurgency that has left physical and psychological scars on each and every family in Kashmir. In Kashmir valley, mainstream parties kept making the case on the ground that the people of J&K had opted for secular India rather than Muslim Pakistan not simply by virtue of accession, but because of the promises of building a pluralist, secular India in which the people of J&K were guaranteed maximum autonomy. Those promises were part of the Article 370 of the Indian Constitution and the Constitution of J&K itself. Sadly, those constitutional guarantees were gradually eroded and now completely nullified. Despite tall claims of building “Naya Kashmir” the fact remains that there had been no tangible gains from the constitutional changes in terms of development, as promised by the architects of the change.
The issue of respect for human rights has remained central to the concerns of the inhabitants of this region. Broken promises, denial of democracy and democratic rights, brazen violation of basic human rights have been aggravating the situation further. Exclusively reliance on suppression and coercion continues to be the core of the Centre’s response to the emerging situation. The respect for the rule of law is the basis for a democracy and in Kashmir various instruments of intimidation by state agencies is putting a question mark on the credibility of India’s democratic institutions. The people and their leaders will survive this onslaught and harassment but history will record the ongoing unwarranted and illegal victimization as an ugly chapter of India’s relationship with Kashmir.
It needs to be noted that the hurried burial of Hurriyat Conference leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani by police on 2nd September and, as alleged by his family members that they were denied the opportunity to give him a proper burial, has only added to already existing mistrust among the people.
The post-5th of August 2019 developments came in the backdrop of rising Islamophobia as well as religious extremism in parallel. Both the trends reinforce each other. Because of the turmoil younger generation of Kashmir, are one of the most politically aware among their mentors in the subcontinent. They have expressed their pain with the power of their pen and won global recognition. However, in the absence of a narrative coming from the rest of the country that owns them fully and at least understands their pain there is a danger of further polarization between the youth and rest of the country. People of my generation and even middle-aged are clueless about the range of social media influences that afflict youngsters in their teens and twenties. The youth is internalizing its own ideas about the situation in Kashmir from social media and possibly connecting with other conflicts involving Muslims. Thus, this has inadvertently created a fertile ecosystem for radical trans-national radical groups that are already knocking the doors of the subcontinent.
Because of an environment of lack of accountability and repeated constitutional impropriety, many in Kashmir, particularly youth, feel that they are pitted against Hindu India. Reinforcing this trend are the inter-regional and inter-religious fault-lines that have deepened in the post-August 5 2019 era. It seems the executive wants to govern the two regions of J&K as de-facto separate entities of Jammu and the Kashmir valley.
Within separated Ladakh, the Buddhist-majority Leh and the Muslim-majority Kargil are demanding statehood as they are unhappy with the status-quo. This is understandable because at present the political leadership in Leh as well as Kargil works under the Lieutenant Governor. Reports suggest that “the Ladakh administration has decided to issue ‘Resident Certificate’ only to the Permanent Resident (PR) Certificate holders of the region, unlike J&K where new domicile laws allowed outsiders too to apply for jobs, land and other facilities.” The de-facto reality is that the PR rights for Ladakh have been restored as it prevailed before 5th August 2019. This U-turn of the central government demonstrates lack of anticipation and knowledge about the ground realities. Many Kashmiris are asking if the centre can restore the concept of Permanent Resident Certificate for Ladakh why cannot do it for the rest of the J&K as all the stakeholders of the former state are against its annulment done on 5 August 2019.
In Jammu, which has around 45% of the J&K’s population, the situation is worrisome as well. There are apprehensions that with Ladakh already separated, there is a design at work to execute RSS’s plan to trifurcate J&K. A resolution to this effect was adopted by the RSS at Kurukshetra in June 2002. As expected, the impact within a diverse J&K had been instant. Muslim majority areas of Jammu namely Rajouri-Poonch and former Doda district are demanding separation from Hindu majority Jammu plains. In other words, inadvertently or advertently, some political actors of the country are hell-bent in mainstreaming the demand for communal division of J&K which goes against the idea of pluralistic and secular India.
The current New Delhi’s political dispensation is distorting historical facts while defending abrogation of Article 370 across the country. They attribute the abrogation as the dividend of a struggle of their ideological forefathers. The fact is that entities like Jan Sangh, Praja Parishad and their leadership sowed the seeds of the first fissure between Kashmir’s political leadership and the central government. The central leadership and Sheikh Abdullah had rejected these areas as they countered that these proposals serve the cause of those who wanted to divide J&K on religious grounds.
The progressively increasing mass alienation of Kashmiris will have disastrous consequences for the country that need to be immediately addressed with a modicum of sensitivity, honesty and maturity. Upholding respect for human rights, correcting and reversing constitutional bungling done on 5 August 2019 and a proactive outreach by the centre towards Kashmiris with assurances to honour their dignity in all respects are some of the steps required in the short-run. Otherwise, the situation can become even more grim for Kashmir as well as the country, particularly at a time when the forces of radicalization are at our doorsteps.
Mohammed Yousuf Tarigami is a former Member of the Jammu & Kashmir Legislative Assembly from the Kulgam Constitutency. He is a Central Committee Member of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) and the Spokesperson of Peoples Alliance for Gupkar Declaration, a movement for the restoration of rights & dignity of the people of Jammu & Kashmir. He tweets at @tarigami.
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