Though India claims that democracy is its soul but last seventy years of democratic track record of successive central governments in Jammu and Kashmir that the very claim of India has been debunked by people in power in Delhi . Till yesterday Prime Minister Narendra Modi used to blame the Congress party for vandalizing the institutional strength of democratic institutions during its reigns of power in Jammu & Kashmir state but an objectionable amendment in the Jammu & Kashmir Municipal Act invoked recently just to ensure the selective election of one political defector as Mayor Srinagar Municipal Corporation (SMC) and now an abrupt decision to dissolve the state assembly despite the formation of three party combination for formation of a new government in the state are the actions sufficient enough to show the intents of the incumbent central government to run the democratic institutions on its own whims and wishes instead of showing respect to the larger public mandate in Jammu & Kashmir state. Though Prime Minister Narendra Modi often reaffirms his commitment to three point agenda of democracy, humanity and Kashmiri nationalism invoked by the first BJP Prime Minister Atal but today Modi government by conveying its approval to the Governor’s recommendation for dissolution of assembly in less than half government on Jammu Raj Bhavan’s defunct fax machine has shown its own way of bulldozing institutional democracy in Jammu & Kashmir.
While the fact remains that National Conference, Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP) and Congress were not as much ideologically opposed to each other as were Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP) and BJP which could run a coalition government for less than three years, the Modi government bulldozed the institutional democracy the way it like as it did not allow 56 MLAs an opportunity to restore popular rule in Jammu & Kashmir state
Ironically the Governor’s fax machine at Raj Bhavan Jammu was working enough well to receive the incoming letter of approval for dissolution of assembly from Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) from Delhi but had turned defunct in when PDP President Mehbooba Mufti was trying to fax her claim staking letter for government formation to Governor Satya Pal Malik. Governor saying that he would have dissolved the assembly even after receiving the claim staking letter from PDP Chief Mehbooba Mufti conveyed the message that Raj Bhavan was already briefed about the decision it was asked to take in the wake of recieveing claim staking letter from Mehbooba Mufti. All in Jammu & Kashmir know that Governor Satya Pal was briefed by Prime Minister on Monday and BJP Chief Amit Shah on Tuesday about the decision he had to take before receiving any claim staking letter from Mehbooba Mufti. People also know that Chief Secretary of the state was asked to rush to Delhi Wednesday after to get a final brief from the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) and the Home Ministry. Interestingly Governor by saying that he already knew about the stability of a government proposed to be formed by parties of divergent ideologies shows that he wanted the parties of his own choice to run a popular government in Jammu & Kashmir. While the fact remains that National Conference, Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP) and Congress were not as much ideologically opposed to each other as were Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP) and BJP which could run a coalition government for less than three years, the Modi government bulldozed the institutional democracy the way it like as it did not allow 56 MLAs an opportunity to restore popular rule in Jammu & Kashmir state
