As Chief Minister of PDP-BJP coalition Government the PDP founder late Mufti Mohammad Sayeed had told the erstwhile J&K assembly “ the J&K assembly is the strongest legislative body of the country and J&K Chief Minister is the strongest Chief Minister of any Indian state”, but he won’t have even imagined it that the strongest assembly would become the weakest and consequently the strongest Chief Minister would be reduced to the position of a clerk heading just a section of clerks of any one of the dozens of the departments at civil secretariat. Imagine the Narendra Modi headed BJP led NDA government took the decision just in one stroke and just three months after returning to power for second term last year. Had late Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah or his son Farooq dared to use sweeping majority of over 60 MLAs in an assembly for restoration of the laws repealed from 1953 till 1975, Modi Government won’t have the courage to downgrade a glorious state to a union territory and withdraw special status to it just in one stroke. Shockingly the major regional mainstream parties particularly National Conference and Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP) are themselves responsible for the downgrading of the position of J&K assembly and the J&K Chief Minister as they always used public mandate for stitching alliances with the major national parties just for pelf and power without seeking any concession from the successive central governments for restoration of the key laws scrapped by the successive central governments from 1953 onwards till July 2018 when BJP withdrew it’s support to Mehbooba Mufti led coalition government.
Knowing that politics has been reduced to an all time low in Jammu and Kashmir the mainstream parties find a common meeting ground over the demand for restoration of statehood but not on the measures taken to reduce the rights of the J&K residents over jobs and land to further the causes of encroachments by outsiders over jobs and land.
Shockingly the successive coalition governments headed by National Conference and PDP instead of seeking restoration of key laws scrapped from 1953 onwards till 1975 were desperate to extend more and more central laws just for appeasing the national parties who were parts of coalition governments in Jammu & Kashmir from time to time. The status of Jammu & Kashmir assembly and the State Chief Minister were already downgraded by the leaders of the top mainstream parties themselves and central government had to put last nail in the coffin which it put in the form of J&K Reorganisation Act 2019 on August 5 last year. It is a crude joke that the saboteurs of J&K’s special status and statehood have become the mourners of the central government’s last year’s August 5 challengeable actions against both the special status and as well as the statehood. Ironically the utterances of mainstream leaders show that they are not concerned more about the special status but about the withdrawal of powers to Chief Minister since reduced to the position of a head clerk of any one of the sections of any department at civil secretariat. Knowing that politics has been reduced to an all time low in Jammu and Kashmir the mainstream parties find a common meeting ground over the demand for restoration of statehood but not on the measures taken to reduce the rights of the J&K residents over jobs and land to further the causes of encroachments by outsiders over jobs and land.
