The Valley is resilient. It has endured the turbulence of time and today it’s not surprising either. The comical administrative tangle driven by a political emissary only brings back hope. Hope that Valley will be free from plagued politics that feeds on selling deaths and belittling a population to claim its resurgence. In a state of a political conundrum of impositions and denials, the valley has only been reduced to a political tool for ensuring the resurgence of the Bharatiya Janata Party. Robbing the highest Constitutional office of its sanctity, in the process. If the lessons of the last five years could be distilled into a single sentence it would be this: The Modi government has been undeniably and gravely harmful to Kashmir’s health. On every conceivable metric, from a worst ever economic slow down to the threat to special status, Modi has failed and now every single resident is paying a heavy price for the Modi brand of misgovernance. Granting Divisional status to Ladakh is an administratively fine decision only if it provides succor to the population of Kargil and Leh in equal terms but establishing a permanent headquarter in Leh is discriminatory and against the principle of justice.
Historically too the headquarter of Ladakh Agency, which was established in 1901, remained on a rotational basis between Leh, Kargil, and Skardu. The urgency with which this decision was taken, somewhere reflects that government is no mood to act upon the Constitutional obligation to ensure early elections, by virtue of which an elected government would be better in place to take decisions of such public importance. Secondly, isolating the regions of Pir Panchal and Chenab speaks volumes about the government’s regional balance theory for which the regional political parties had once become untouchables. A widely hailed decision of State Cabinet to exempt stamp duty for women was revoked, even when Cabinet members of Ladakh and Jammu region supported it. Administratively, Valley is operating beyond the Constitution and “Tughlaki Farman” is the only book, wherein the mainstream political parties including two recent former Chief Ministers and their opinion are brushed aside. Butchering the sanctity of the office, Governor has overshadowed average aspiring Kashmiri politician when talking about Valley’s political dynamics. Governor Malik prefers to be called as the “Chief Minister” of the state. The extravagant amount spent on PR campaign for State’s “Mission Development” could be well spent on risk aversion in multiple tragedies we have faced recently, owing to failing infrastructure.
Most ironically, development quotient is always used to belittle us against our legitimate political aspirations. It is no almsgiving, as a part of this nation, development remains an unquestionable right. Bringing the people forcefully on their knees by fiscal mechanizations and forceful political impasse is no greatness. For Modi, the unseen “development” is the only cookie to sell to the nation.
Tailpiece: Empty Dal lake, Internet shutdown, cordoned streets are the only reality that BJP and the nation need to reckon with. Years after imposing a rigid political response and sweeping iron fist policy, Modi’s last visit to Kashmir as the Prime Minister in office signifies that neither did talks happen and ‘Vikas’ still remains a distant dream. In all this, Kashmir is being governed by a political emissary who is suffering from political dyslexia but certainly knows how to make BJP’s resurgence possible even if it means demolishing a Constitutional office.
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