The intensifying row over darbar move- a practice of the shifting of top government offices including civil secretariat between summer capital Srinagar and winter capital Jammu twice a year is much about polarising politics not heading to any dead end in Jammu & Kashmir and less about the financial and administrative intricacies. Interestingly the petition filed against the six monthly shifting of top government offices including the civil secretariat between summer capital Srinagar and winter capital Jammu before the Jammu & Kashmir high court is similar in many ways to the petitions that were filed against article 370 and article 35 A in Delhi High Court and Supreme Court of the country barely few months after the takeover of the central government by the BJP under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi way back in the year 2014. So the attempt to trigger a public debate over 148 year old practice of the shifting of top government offices twice a year between two capitals –Srinagar and Jammu could be part of yet another bigger plan for scrapping it in the end. Though irrefutable fact is that the practice of shifting of the top government offices twice a year was started by erstwhile Dogra ruler Maharaja Ranbir Singh in 1872, along with introduction of the Ranbir Penal Code, but the incumbent central government controlled and commanded by BJP under the leadership of Narendra Modi is taking all initiatives to belittle the people of Kashmir valley and distort the political history of Jammu & Kashmir without any rhyme or reason under the garb of hyper nationalism. After scrapping Ranbir penal code, the darbar move scrapping would finish up the last remnants of erstwhile dogra rulers loved and respected by the people of dogra community more than the lives of their own children. Though former Chief Minister Farooq Abdullah has in the year 1987 tried to stop this practice when he issued orders to keep the secretariat in Srinagar open throughout the year but he had to withdraw the decision within a short span of one month after widespread protests spread deep and wide in Jammu region.
After scrapping Ranbir penal code, the darbar move scrapping would finish up the last remnants of erstwhile dogra rulers loved and respected by the people of dogra community more than the lives of their own children.
The tendencies of the central government to distort the political and administrative history of Jammu and Kashmir is now going beyond the downgrading of a state to a union territory and withdrawal of special status on August 5 last year . Since the idea of scrapping the practice of six monthly shifting of top government offices between two capitals after every six months could by all standards of understandabilities be the final step towards the trifurcation of the erstwhile Jammu & Kashmir state. The statehood to Jammu and union territory status for Kashmir could be part of the apparent design of scrapping the practice of six monthly shifting of top government offices including the civil secretariat between the two capital cities. The incumbent BJP government at the centre is not bothered about regional balancing in Jammu & Kashmir but is obviously pursuing fast on an agenda of reducing Kashmir to a union territory with the intent of keeping it under direct control of the central government once forever and giving Jammu statehood to satisfy it’s own political ego.