Funny, perhaps not so funny, given that the country was justthen trying to come to terms with the rising tide of the COVID-19 pandemic witha nationwide lock-out when the lords in the government in New Delhi thought thetime was ripe or opportune, if you will, to bring in on the quiet, possibly, achange in what in the local Jammu and Kashmir parlance is called the StateSubject Laws, domicile rules in the parts of the country, a move which in theevent, turned out to be counterproductive due to the unseemly manner in whichit was sought to be introduced. For the present at least, though the move hasto be aborted given that the ramifications of the move, essentially one aboutthe domicile laws, showed that in spite of the patent demographic changesundertaken, the move, would indeed not benefit the interests of the Hindu majorityJammu even as it may compromise the interests of the Muslim majority KashmirValley. The casual manner in which New Delhi sought to introduce thefar-reaching changes contemplated by it in the basic domicile criteria in thenow truncated former state of Jammu and Kashmir, a newly created unionterritory minus the sprawling Ladakh region (a union territory on all its own)news came as a complete shocker event to the most ardent supporter of thechange in Kashmir. For the men of the newly formed Apni Party of Kashmir, by aformer minister in Mehbooba Mufti’s ill-starred, government who had seemed setto be the front of New Delhi’s plans in the former princely state, it was morethan a mere embarrassment to be seen as a partner in the BJP’s plans to overhaulthe demographic map of the Indian Territory. Altaf Bukhari, currently apossible political choice for New Delhi in the evolving state of affairs in theUnion Territory looked more than embarrassed by the covert move (currently inabeyance) by New Delhi to enforce its law and replace the State Subject Laws.Significantly, it says something about how the policy notified by New Delhi hasbeen seen as a major let down by Altaf Bukhari who has stuck his neck out to beseen as New Delhi’s new plenipotentiary in Jammu and Kashmir. An aspirant only,at the moment for the Home Minister in Delhi is no easy ball to play with,under the new rules replacing the present set, the central governmentintroduced a new definition of domicile in the union territory through theJammu and Kashmir Reorganisation (Adaptation of State Laws) Order, 2020. Thenew definition allows all Indian citizens to apply for government jobs inJ&K if they fulfill certain conditions. This definition also details who isa permanent resident, who can own property and are eligible for government jobs– a wholly expansive list of categories of all non-residents enabled to beingplaced at par with state subjects. In other words, the newly designatedcategories fulfilling the newly set out qualifying standards can buy property,land included and enjoy most other privileges enjoyed by the existing statesubjects. The tragedy here is that the BJP’s men in Jammu do not appear to careif they along the way lose all the privileges they are currently enjoying inthe matter of property rights and job reservations. A pity that this should behappening, given that the State Subjects rules were not enforced by a Muslim,Christian, Brahmin or Buddhist rulers of the state. It was the last DograMaharaj of Jammu and Kashmir, Maharaja Hari Singh who introduced the statesubject laws in his state in the last 1920s to ensure that people from outsidethe state did not come to buy up land and other immovable properties in hisrealm and that they should not usurp all the available jobs in the state. Thiswas protection enjoyed as much by the Muslim majority Kashmir and the Hindumajority Jammu. Indeed there had been occasional imbalances in the job-sharingbetween the two parts including Ladakh but these were sought to be corrected byreviewing panels such as say, the Gajendra Gadkar Commission.
The timing of the order sought to be imposed in New Delhi ismost disquieting. The state leaders have, unlike the BJP ruling elite, shown abetter sense of timing by not making the new crisis of a flashpoint. Indeed,they seem to have shown greater sobriety by not reacting to this ill-advisedand ill-timed error by New Delhi. Altaf Bukhari, the man on whom the presentdispensation in New Delhi appears to have pinned some hope must be a veryembarrassed man. After all, he had taken the political initiative by formingthe new Apni Party, as a mainstream political forum and indeed allowed himselfto be seen probably as the new man in the valley with which the BJP may wish todo business. I don’t know who Altaf Bukhari is but I hope he does not sufferthe same fate as the younger Mr. Lone of the People’s Conference who has onceprovided himself as being a younger brother of Mr. Modiji. Indeed. Mr. Lone didfind his way into Mehbooba Mufti’s cabinet along with the BJP’s nominees whenthe two parties had coalesced post the 2014 elections.