NOTWITHSTANDING the tall claims made by the BJP government in Jammu and Kashmir about normalcy and economic development post 2019, the truth remains that there is a depressing scenario prevalent on multiple fronts in the state.

First of all, there is a dire political vacuum in the state in the absence of elections and popular government. The statehood has been denied in the most unconstitutional and brazen manner. This is a blatant infringement on the basic constitutional and democratic rights of the people of the state. It has been more than eight years since the assembly elections were held in Jammu and Kashmir. The people of the erstwhile state have been left at the mercy of the bureaucratic rule which is creating immense hardships for them. In this scenario, the people of the state are facing problems from all sides. There has been stagnation on development front while the unemployment has reached to the levels never seen before.

All this has spurred a deep sense of alienation and betrayal among the people in both the divisions of Jammu and Kashmir.

In the absence of a representative government, there hardly seems any respect for the constitution. The assault on civil liberties and freedoms goes unabated. Journalists continue to face intimidation and attempts are being made to browbeat them into submission. On the other hand, the government does not shy away from beating ‘normalcy’ trumpets. It embarked on a publicity blitz following the G-20 Tourism Summit to telegraph a normalcy message.

If everything is fine in the Valley, one wonders that what prevents the government from conducting the assembly elections and returning the statehood to the historic state.

The edifice of government stands on elections, but their denial calls into question the impartial and non-partisan functioning of the institutions like the Election Commission. 

A delegation of regional and national opposition political parties called on the Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) in March and submitted a memorandum, demanding early elections. Earlier the CEC had said that the elections in the region would be conducted keeping in view many factors including weather and security.  Now when we are already in the middle of summer and security situation is normal enough to even conduct a high profile summit like G20, one may question the silence of Election Commission on announcing the elections. 

It appears that the BJP government is scared of holding elections in Jammu and Kashmir. It has perhaps seen the writing on the wall as all of its communal and divisive planks were exposed by people both in Jammu and Kashmir regions respectively. BJP was relying on the card of communal polarisation especially in the Jammu region but now it knows that people of Jammu, regardless of religious identity, are not buying into the hollow rhetoric of BJP and Sangh Parivar. They have seen how their political and socio-economic rights have been snatched by the BJP government regardless of religion, ethnicity and region.

Despite all the claims, the unemployment among the educated youth is growing to an all-time high in the state. As per the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE) figures, J&K has a 25 per cent unemployment rate, which is even higher than the national level unemployment rate of 7.6 per cent recorded across India. The plight of Kashmiri Pandit and reserved category employees continues to be uncertain despite their long protests. In fact, they are being given harsh new dictates each day. As if inflation, unemployment, and price rise were not enough, people in the entire territory have been harassed further through the imposition of property tax.

The working class also finds itself cornered on the front of livelihood. The daily wage earners, labourers, stall wallahs, small shops, auto wallahs, drivers, small time workers, etc in the post-Covid situation are facing issues because they are under the burden of heavy interest bank loans. They are also harassed under the pretext of encroachment and demolition. Teachers, Anganwadi workers, daily wage workers, Adhoc employees, and contractuals are often on the roads demanding their pending salaries. These employees in any case are highly under-paid. Some of these daily wage workers are being shown the door. They are not able to cope up with the high inflation.

The current administration also stands discredited among the general masses with widespread allegations of corruption and nepotism especially in such vital institutions like JKSSB with contracts being given to fraud companies. Much of the healthcare and hospitals are in abject conditions. Administration has failed to provide the primary health services to the people. Every now and then, patient deaths get reported from across J&K owing to lack of medical negligence and infrastructure.

Many government departments like the power department, revenue and forestry, Jal Shakti, according to government’s own admission, are showing abject performance owing to the mismanagement and adhocism that this government has promoted. People all over the state are facing electricity shortage despite the state producing good amounts of electricity. It has also been noticed that the state’s economy has witnessed a sharp decline ever since this government took over. The state is under huge liabilities which reflect gross mismanagement. JK Bank, where common people of J&K deposit their precious earnings, was pressurised to provide loans to the corporates and other defaulters which have now turned into NPAs. It has put the bank under stress and will ultimately erode the customer’s trust. 

Local industry has plunged to a record low; trade is being mismanaged while agriculture has borne the brunt of this chaos. No steps have been taken to uplift the horticulture sector which is the backbone of the state’s economy. The new land laws have the potential to wreck the local ownership of land. It will dispossess the local entrepreneurs and farmers of their land, thus bringing further misery to them. Apple farmers are reeling under bank loans while there was no regulatory mechanism in place to ensure transportation on national highway and standard market prices. The apple industry faced losses in billions this year. The prices of fertilizers and spray oils are always sky rocketing.

The BJP government in the centre cannot continue to operate with arrogance and impunity to deny basic democratic rights to the people of Jammu and Kashmir. It is high time that it should not be accepted by the democracy loving sections and institutions of our country. The constitution of India is after all a guarantor of the various freedoms that the idea of India enshrines in it. But since it is facing an assault of sorts currently, the responsibility becomes much more upon all of us as the citizens of this country to affirm and defend the idea of India and all other constitutional values. In our diverse ways of language, culture, religion, and even thinking, it is through the principles laid out by the constitution that we rally around. This is something that our whole democratic structures are based upon. Not only in the political realm, but also as citizens of this country we need to mobilise to come together if we do believe or claim to believe in the idea of India and its constitution. We are of the belief that it is the secular and democratic foundations which bind India and Kashmir. The idea of India is as relevant and natural to the idea of Kashmiriyat. It is imperative that democracy be restored and strengthened in Jammu and Kashmir if we are to start healing the wounds. It is too obvious that normalcy without democracy is no normalcy at all.