Year of upheavals in JK: BJP’s retractions similar to Cong’s betrayals

As Kashmir Horizon completes 12 years of sustained publication, a cursory look at the major political upheavals in Jammu & Kashmir during the last one year shows that BJP too is retracting from its August 5 promises the way Congress backtracked on promises during its more than four decade long rule at the centre. The promise of Home Minister Amit Shah to return the statehood to Jammu & Kashmir in short time during his introductory statement on withdrawal of special status and bifurcation of erstwhile Jammu & Kashmir state into two union territories on the floor of Lok Sabha had created an impression that central government will leave it for the future popular government of Jammu & Kashmir to take calls on new laws particularly those related to residential and job rights to address the fear of demography in the erstwhile glorious state of Indian Union now reduced to a union territory. All decisions are taken before the return of statehood and consequently the actions of the central government in the post article 370 abrogation scenario are not going well down the throats of people in both Kashmir valley and as well Jammu division . The recent outrage over the domicile law amid COVID-19 breakout forced the central government to amend it’s own drafted domicile law in less than 24 hours and that too is not even rarely acceptable to people either in Kashmir valley or Jammu division. A new delimitation panel has been put into place but incumbent parliament members of Jammu & Kashmir deserving to be named full fledged members of the panel have been named just associate members obviously to deny them a decisive role in the proposes delimitation exercise. The abolition of several statutory bodies and public sector undertakings in the absence of a popular government shows that the incumbent central government commanded and controlled by BJP under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi does not plan to return the statehood to Jammu & Kashmir as promised by Home Minister and Prime Minister of the country.
Reminding Home Minister Amit Shah of his promise on return of statehood does not evoke any response from any quarter of central government and as such people in Jammu & Kashmir are of the opinion that BJP like Congress is retracting from it’s own promises and such Congress and BJP are proving to be two faces of the same coin. The silence of three time former Chief Minister Farooq Abdullah and his son Omar Abdullah against the hostile postures of central government on key issues too drop indications that in absence of statehood to Jammu & Kashmir the main stake holders of power politics too have choosen to go into political hibernation.
The shifting of the service matters of the government employees from J&K High Court to Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT) amid a row over the demand for it’s separate benches in Srinagar and Jammu is yet another indication that statehood is unlikely to be returned to Jammu & Kashmir in short near future. Treating Jammu & Kashmir like any other union territory is inimical to the interests of participatory governance the soul of which is the restoration of popular rule. Jammu & Kashmir is neither Pondichery nor Chandigarah but it has glorious past which has to be respected if not by the present regimes but by the successors of the present dispensation. The failures on the governance front too are deepening the increasing alienation across Jammu & Kashmir as government employees are still waiting for the salaries of their previous month when the salaries of the current month are due to them on the eve of forthcoming Eid ul Fitr the annual holy festival of muslims on the completion of the holy month of Ramadan. The daily rated workers including the HDF employees and NHM workers all engaged with the ongoing fight against COVID-19 are upset and angered over the unprecedented delay in the payment of their wages on the eve of Eid Ul Fitr. The scrapping of the selection process for over 1200 posts by J&K Bank has panicked the aspirants across Jammu & Kashmir who now see at the decision as an attempt to open flood gates for non J&K residents under the garb of the implementation of new domicile law. Reminding Home Minister Amit Shah of his promise on return of statehood does not evoke any response from any quarter of central government and as such people in Jammu & Kashmir are of the opinion that BJP like Congress is retracting from it’s own promises and such Congress and BJP are proving to be two faces of the same coin. The silence of three time former Chief Minister Farooq Abdullah and his son Omar Abdullah against the hostile postures of central government on key issues too drop indications that in absence of statehood to Jammu & Kashmir the main stake holders of power politics too have choosen to go into political hibernation.