Development Card BJP's best Bet..... Power & Politics / The Sunday Standard/ March 20, 2016

Development Card BJP's Best Bet to Stop the Kashmir Valley from Drifting

Experiments in political engineering can throw up strange results, as seen in Jammu and Kashmir. In January last year, keeping aside its ‘non-negotiable’ nationalistic ideology, the BJP decided to strike an experimental deal with the pro-separatist Peoples’ Democratic Party of the late Mufti Mohammad Sayeed. Now, after 14 months, the BJP seems to have discovered something rotten in both the taste and odour of the power it has consumed in the state. The experiment of fusion politics, mixing nationalism with separatism, has proven to be a recipe for disaster. Ever since the Mufti died two months ago, his successor Mehbooba Mufti and the BJP leadership have been holding both public and secret parleys to revive the dead alliance. Officially, they have been exuding confidence about the formation of the new coalition government, and yet both have been talking about the lack of a confidence-building road map for a political reunion.

Any alliance made on the basis of convenience rather than conviction, collapses sooner than later. In a state like Jammu and Kashmir, where a love for money and romance with extra-territorial ideas dictate the political narrative, any formation which threatens established social and political order is bound to fail. The BJP has been unsuccessful in imposing its brand of politics and societal practices on the PDP, which survives by supporting and feeding those who oppose the Valley’s integration with India.

The tug of war between the PDP and BJP is not just for grabbing proprietary right to a few power plants or any special package. It is a confrontation of two ideologies and the idea of India. Mehbooba wants J&K to remain emotionally separate from India while the BJP wants to erase all legal, social and economic hurdles and make the Valley a part of the national mainstream.

By joining hands with the PDP, both Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP Chief Amit Shah expected to restore the secular character of the Valley. They thought they could push the state government to facilitate the safe return of the Kashmiri Pundits, with full liberty to do business and participate in the electoral process. The Centre linked the entire economic package and phased withdrawal of the armed forces with the rehabilitation of the Kashmir Pundits and the tightening of the noose around separatists. But Mehbooba is no Mufti, who could survive on his own charisma and credibility. Indeed, she has acquired political legitimacy only by pandering to the sentiments and tears of those whose relatives have died while participating in attacks on civilians and Indian Army personnel. She has realised that by staying with the BJP, she will lose her traditional support base.

The current constitutional crisis in the Valley is also a manifestation of the confrontation between two political dynasties led by Mehbooba and Omar Abdullah. Both of them are competing with each other in painting the BJP as a threat to the autonomy and welfare of the Kashmiri people. Both of them are determined to marginalise the role of national parties such as the Congress and BJP. While the Abdullahs have been a part of national politics, Mehbooba has always confined herself to the Valley. The Abdullahs also enjoy the support of a small section of the Hindu minority in the Valley and Jammu region while Mufti survives only on Muslim backing in the Valley.

It is, however, the complete failure of both the Congress and BJP to erode the core constituency of the National Conference (NC) and PDP. Even after 69 years of Independence, a substantial majority of Kashmiris are hostile to the idea of calling themselves Indian. The Congress has ruled the state for 12 years alone and over 50 years as part of a coalition or with the support of a regional party. The Abdullahs ran the state for over two decades. If one includes 10 years of Congress-backed NC rebel Bakshi Ghulam Mohammad, the NC was in command of the sensitive state for almost 30 years.

Pakistan has never accepted the reality of Jammu and Kashmir as part of the Indian Republic, and till 1990, has supported and financed the separatists. When it failed to destabilise the state, it started armed infiltration and used local operatives to bomb and kill civilians and army personnel. The Centre’s attempt to use governors for neutralising extreme elements also failed. Even the current governor Narendra Nath Vohra, a favourite of every party, has not succeeded in diluting the impact of the separatists by ensuring proper development of the state by using his charm over the local government. On the other hand, Pakistan’s objective was to halt the economic development of the state and sow the seeds of terror. It has succeeded. In spite of liberal money flow from New Delhi, the state’s GDP rose by less than 1 per cent during 2014-15 down from over 13 per cent the previous year. The lack of development and misuse of funds have generated more unemployment and have pushed the youth into the hands of anti-national elements.

But development has never been a glue that’s bonded ideologically opposed political parties. With Pakistan in a mood to talk, the best solution open for the BJP is to play the development card, treat separatists as enemies of the state, and appoint a governor who bothers far more about greater governance rather than his own survival. In the past seven decades, instead of coming closer to India, the Valley has drifted into the black hole of politics of opportunism and convenience. If matters remain the way they are, the black hole will seal itself and darkness will endlessly prevail. 

PS: Last week I wrote about why Modi adores Sri Sri. Last week, Art of Living Guru took to Twitter to prove his worldwide acceptability. He tweeted twice as follows:

19/03/16, 1:35 am: The World Culture Festival had 767,436 locations in 188 countries viewing the webcast according to our webcast partner, Livestream’s report.

The social media partner reported 1.4 bn impressions on Twitter & 30 mn engagements on Facebook during the World Culture Festival.

For Modi, visibility on social media is an accelerator that keeps him going.

prabhuchawla@newindianexpress.com; Follow me on Twitter @PrabhuChawla

J & K Logjam shows politics of ...... Power & Politics / The Sunday Standard / February 07, 2016

J and K Logjam Shows Politics of Additionalism Can't be at the Cost of Ideology of Idealism

Experiments have dynamics, delivery and destiny of their own. In Jammu and Kashmir, the BJP’s experiment to form a coalition government with the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) was fated to end in frustration, fiasco and failure. In new age politics, the Ideology of Idealism has been replaced by the Politics of Additionalism. Instead of rationality, the arithmetic of additionality is the new mantra to grab more and more of the political market share. Parties are forging alliances indiscriminately just for power’s sake. The BJP-PDP deal forged in February 2015 was seen as a masterstroke. For the first time, the saffron party became a part of the ruling dispensation in a state where the BJP’s progenitor Dr Syama Prasad Mookerjee spent his dying days in despair in a dilapidated jailhouse. BJP President Amit Shah and PM Narendra Modi walked the extra mile to accommodate the sentiment and concerns of late J&K Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed to form the government on March 1, 2015. For the BJP, it was a chance to bring the Valley into mainstream politics. For the PM, an alliance with a party sympathetic to the separatist cause was a trophy to show the rest of the world that the BJP has the democratic mandate to rule the state. A formal Common Minimum Programme (CMP) was finalised. As long as Sayeed was alive, the coadunation machine was cruising along at a comfortable speed despite the undercurrents of ideological turbulence. Both parties were bound by the electoral verdict to keep the National Conference (NC) and Congress away from power. Over 65 per cent of J&K voters defied the terror threat and voted. But they gave a fractured verdict. For the BJP, it was its best performance ever in the J&K Assembly polls. Though the party’s maximum haul was from Jammu—it polled 23 per cent of the total votes as against 22.7 by the PDP, 20.8 by NC and 18 by the Congress.

But fate is a fickle mistress. Despite the decisive mandate, Sayeed took over two months to form an alliance with the BJP. Shah and PDP President Mehbooba Mufti announced that they had “ironed out” their ideological differences. Finally, Sayeed took over as the CM and senior BJP leader Nirmal Singh was sworn in as the state’s first non-Muslim deputy CM. This implied that the NDA government at the Centre could depend on the PDP’s support in Parliament. But the seeds of discord were nascent in the CMP itself. It stated the coalition government would ensure “all-round development of Jammu and Kashmir” and follow the principle of ‘Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas (with all, the development of all)’. It was agreed that controversial and contentious issues such as Article 370 and the Arms Forces Special Power Act (AFSPA) would be referred to a high-power committee, which would be represented by both parties and a few eminent non-political personalities. But within a few days of swearing-in, Sayeed gave the credit for the high voter turnout to separatists and Pakistan’s non-interference in Kashmir’s tortured politics. “If, God forbid, the Hurriyat and militants tried to disrupt the elections, these would not have been as participative as they had been,” the CM said. This was challenged by the BJP. Over last year, the partners were engaged in shadow boxing over Article 370 and the issue of hoisting the state flag along with the Tricolour. The 56-year-old Mehbooba had always been uncomfortable with the BJP’s ideological push in the state administration. Now, her father’s demise has led both agonised allies to do ideological introspection. Mehbooba had the sudden epiphany that PDP’s association with the BJP was unpopular with her core constituency in the Valley. Sayeed’s agenda had been to get a Central financial package for J&K and very little about issues like more autonomy to the state. Today, his daughter wants the political issues to be settled first before deciding to restore the coalition government. On its part, the BJP leadership, including Modi, has decided to stick to what they call the ‘Mufti Vision’ and refuse to settle for anything less.

Mehbooba is unwilling to lose PDP’s political space to its arch rival NC by making concessions to the BJP. She was shocked to discover that Sayeed’s funeral, held at his hometown in Bijbehara, was poorly attended while a few days later, the funeral of Hizbul Mujahideen militant Shakir Ahmad in nearby Pulwama drew a mammoth mass. Unlike Sayeed, Mehbooba has always had a soft corner for the separatist cause. Though she joined politics in 1996 as a Congress MLA from the Valley, she has persistently opposed the “excessive repression” of Kashmiris by the Central military forces. She was at the forefront of agitations against fake encounters. All of 2015, she had mostly stayed away from any dialogue with BJP leaders; the strategy was to project Sayeed as the dove and Mehbooba as the hawk. Now, she is acting true to form, seeking a credible assurance from Modi to oblige her agenda—scrapping AFSPA, getting the Army to vacate land under its supervision, and the return of power projects from the National Hydro Power Corporation—before forging an alliance. Meanwhile, both the NC and Congress are mounting pressure on her to fulfil the promises made to Kashmiris. The BJP is unwilling to totally abandon its hardline nationalist and Hindutva policy. Most of its leaders, both from the state and Centre, are against giving any concessions to Mehbooba. The party is caught between a rock and a hard place.

The J&K imbroglio has forced it to rethink its strategy on forming alliances with ideological adversaries for the sake of getting a share in the government. In other coalitions, the BJP is suffering because of the unsatisfactory performance of regional allies like the Akali Dal in Punjab and Ram Vilas Paswan-led LJP in Bihar. Adventurist exercises like roping in caste dons in the Bihar elections didn’t yield results. Party insiders feel the Politics of Additionalism should be used to add to its kitty more voters and workers instead of caste and communal leaders. The Shiv Sena-BJP alliance in Maharashtra is already riddled with conflict, bringing disrepute to the state BJP leaders.

L K Advani, the maestro of the Art of Additionality, had roped in a legion of regional parties to form the 24-party NDA coalition at the Centre in 1998. It lost the elections in 2004 and 2009 because most BJP’s allies dumped it to protect their ideological identity. History is repeating itself. Modi and Shah stand to lose the BJP’s core constituency in J&K thanks to the BJP-PDP squabbles. Insiders feel that the party’s leadership should abjure the statecraft of striking deals or risk facing political isolation. To gain a durable and natural expansion of the BJP’s and NDA’s acceptability in the long run, the Twin Turbos need to stick to their intrinsic ideology and agenda for governance.

prabhuchawla@newindianexpress.com; Follow me on Twitter @PrabhuChawla

Verdict 2014 in Jammu & Kashmir ..... Power & Politics/The Sunday Standard/December 28, 2014

Verdict 2014 in Jammu and Kashmir a Vote for Inclusive Growth Model and a Genuinely Secular State

The art of interpretation, at times, is a jumbled jigsaw when applied to fractured electoral verdicts. Last week, when Jammu and Kashmir got a hung Assembly, India’s semi-psephologists preened on their perches, hawking inane interpretations. Most of them declared it a divided verdict between J&K. Undoubtedly, Jammu voted for the BJP, while the Valley and Ladakh batted for the Mufti-led PDP, Congress and National Conference (NC). But don’t voters of different regions in states like Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh, Andhra Pradesh, West Bengal and Uttar Pradesh vote for different parties? Isn’t it a fact that Vidarbha and the rest of Maharashtra have been choosing opposing parties in both the Assembly and Lok Sabha elections? But no neo-liberal columnist or self-anointed social scientist has pronounced such outcomes as divisive.

When it comes to J&K, faux-pundits come out in droves to debase and distort the verdict, conveniently forgetting that it is also a state with three different regions, which vote according to their respective priorities. Jammu had been denying the BJP a majority for the past six decades. The party has never won more than a dozen seats until now. The remaining 22 seats went to the ‘secular’ or regional parties. Even during the 2002 and 2008 Assembly elections, Kashmir voted for regional parties and Jammu primarily for the Congress. But then it wasn’t christened a divided verdict. Because for most Westernised Indians, Kashmir’s democratic process ends at the Valley. For them, only those who win there should form the government and lead it, even if they haven’t captured the majority of votes in the entire state. They assert that the party that seizes the most votes shouldn’t be a part of the ruling dispensation and those which got patchwork verdicts should forge a grand alliance to keep it out. This is not only a dangerous interpretation, but also poses an ominous threat to the principle of democracy.

For the first time, Verdict 2014 in J&K cannot be termed fractured. Around five million residents of J&K voted for an inclusive growth model and a genuinely secular state. In political terms, it is a decisive mandate in favour of restoring its secular character, which was amputated after the mass exodus of persecuted Kashmiri Pundits. Look at the statistics. The BJP won 25 seats with 23 per cent of the votes polled, followed by the PDP, which garnered 28 seats with 22.7 per cent votes. The NC, which ruled the state with the Congress for six years, polled 20.8 per cent votes and bagged just 15 seats as against 28 in 2008. The Congress came fourth, with just 12 seats and a vote share of 18 per cent. The people of J&K used their ballots to defeat the bullets from across the border. The record voter turnout symbolises their faith in India and its instruments of impartial governance.

The message is clear. The country’s most beautiful state can no longer be governed by the perverse ideology of the past. If it has to survive as a unified entity, Jammu has to be an integral part of the government. It is also clear that the special status granted to J&K under Article 370 cannot be used exclusively for the residents of only one part of the state. In addition, the distortions introduced in Article 370, which denies full citizenship to all its residents, have to be corrected. Though PM Narendra Modi removed Article 370 from the party’s election manifesto, his charm and warmth could not melt the heart of the frozen Valley. The party could not win a single seat in either the Valley or Ladakh. Of the 34 BJP candidates who contested from the Valley, 33 lost their deposits. The BJP’s Muslim candidates, however, won in Jammu.

Now, the state needs to move towards full integration with the rest of India. With the development agenda and a stable government, the legislature is expected to remove all the rules and laws that discriminate between one Kashmiri and the other. Since the BJP seems to have given up on annulling Article 370, the state politicians must restore full political empowerment to those who have been denied their right to participate in the Assembly elections, even though they can choose their Lok Sabha candidate. To begin with, the Modi government must undo the damage done in May 1954 by the Nehru government, which clandestinely amended Article 368 to introduce Article 35A which was enforced only in J&K. It was perhaps for the first time that a constitutional amendment was passed through a presidential order and not by Parliament. Article 35A enables the J&K Constituent Assembly to deny citizenship rights to refugees from West Pakistan as well as to other Indians, barring permanent residents of the state. Armed with absolute powers, the Constituent Assembly adopted Section 6, which states that no person who crossed over to the state after May 1944 would be eligible for citizenship. Hence, over two lakh residents psychologically exist in no man’s land.

But what happened in 1990 was much worse. A pogrom was unleashed to change the Valley’s demographic character. Over four lakh Pundits were ejected from their homes to become refugees in their own country and around 300 were slaughtered. Even after 26 years since Holocaust Day, no serious attempt has been made to restore them to their homes. Most surprisingly, those who stage protests over the killings of members of other communities have never sought an enquiry into the worst case of human displacement after Partition. Even a panel appointed by the UPA government, headed by a senior journalist, to suggest a framework to resolve Kashmir’s issues ignored the plight of exiled Kashmiri Pundits. The transition from Kashmiriyat to haiwaniyat (demonisation) during the past 25 years has provided permanent careers to foreign-funded intellectuals. But the mandate of 2014 is a good omen for the state to return to the philosophy of insaniyat (humanity) propounded by Atal Bihari Vajpayee. It is a litmus test for Modi, Abdullah and Mufti to follow the Vajpayee doctrine or push the state into a vortex of anarchy, turning it into a playground of blood-thirsty terrorists.

Prabhuchawla@newindianexpress.com ; Follow me on Twitter @PrabhuChawla

Kashmiris Biting Bullet ...... Power & Politics/ The Sunday Standard/December 07, 2014

Kashmiris Biting Bullet for Ballot Shows Their Resolve to be Part of India Growth Story

Special is the word t h a t d e s c r i b e s Jammu and Kashmir the best. It is the only state in India that enjoys Special Category status with over 70 per cent of its government expenditure being funded through Central grants. It has its own constitution, and even its own flag. With less than 1 per cent of India’s population, it occupies over 3 per cent of the nation’s geographical area. Encircled by snowy peaks, the land of shimmering lakes, golden chinar forests, dancing streams and the legendary Chenab should be a global destination for tourists looking for peace and paradise. However, despite New Delhi pumping in money like Dal Lake’s water, Kashmir has been converted into a battlefield, where jihadists from across the border and the Indian security forces are engaged in a macabre duel of death.

Last week, the guns were back in the Valley with a vengeance. In less than 12 hours, 22 people, including a Lt Colonel of the army, lost their lives in terrorist attacks. Professional doves saw the Black Friday massacre as an attempt to establish the supremacy of bullets over ballots. But the hawks in the establishment considered it as a growing threat to India’s stability and unity from a brutal force motivated purely by faith. The former would be distressed to learn that statistics show no connection between the spurt in terrorist violence and voter turnout. The people of J&K have broken all previous records by turning out in massive numbers during the last two phases of the polls. But in 2008, too, the turnout had broken records. It means Kashmiris have just been following the national trend of rising voter participation in elections. As they assimilate more into the national mainstream through education, connectivity and aspirations, they don’t wish to be stereotyped as the ones against the democratic process. Since the late 1990s, Kashmiris all over the state have been rejecting boycott calls by separatists. According to records, over 60 per cent of voters participated in choosing their government in 2008—a 17 per cent higher turnout than in 2002. Did it lead to an increase in terror attacks? The numbers tell the story. Of the 34 killed in November 2008 when the elections were held, 29 were terrorists. There were 541 fatalities in the Valley in 2008, of which 382 were jihadists and 90 were from the security forces. During the current state polls, in which voter turnout is expected to cross 70 per cent, 22 persons, including 10 terrorists, have been killed. In the first week of December alone, 21 have fallen to bullets. Significantly, more people were gunned down in August when elections had not yet begun. Sadly, 2014 seems to be the Year of Terror in Kashmir. With three weeks left for the year to close, 185 people have already been shot against 181 last year.

It is becoming quite clear that the revival of terror attacks has nothing to do with the elections. The combined might of the Pakistani establishment and jihadis consider stability in Kashmir as a threat to their unholy mission of spreading tenebrous tentacles throughout India. The conflict has become a war between medievalminded, gun-toting mercenaries and a democratic India. For the past few years, the terrorists have chosen the security forces—a symbol of Indian state power—to create panic in the Valley. Earlier they were striking at will and killing more civilians than securitymen. According to reports, around 15,000 civilians lost their lives as against 6,200 members of the armed forces in J&K since 1988. The maximum number of civilian deaths (1,333) occurred in 1996. This fell to just 20 in 2013. Even the number of security personnel who died in terror action declined from 376 to 61 during the same period. But this year, more army men lost their lives than civilians. It is a sobering thought that despite killing over 23,000 terrorists in the last 25 years, there is no let-up in their resolve to demolish India. It is a matter of record that the maximum number of jihadists killed (2,850) was in 2001 when NDA was ruling the country. The credit for quelling militancy goes to our security forces. If fewer and fewer civilians have fallen to bombs and bullets, it is due to better intelligence inputs and effective use of the military establishment.

Despite the exemplary performance of India’s security forces, numerous NGOs and political leaders have been mounting pressure on the Centre to dilute the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act, which empowers the Army to deal with jihadis with maximum force. As one officer put it, “Our jawans are getting killed so that civilians can live in peace. Imagine what would happen to unarmed ordinary people if we are locked up in our barracks with our hands tied behind our backs.”

It could be argued that diplomatic pressures and a favourable environment for dialogue have led to diminished tensions on the borders. But that doesn’t explain the rise in unprovoked incursions and open support given by Pakistan’s political leadership to Hafiz Saeed, the prophet of holy war in India. A section of Pakistani civil society has been providing financial and strategic support to India’s enemies while simultaneously demanding dialogue.

Last month, over two dozen wise men from Pakistan and India assembled in Delhi to push India for talks and encourage commercial and cultural exchanges. They hardly mentioned LeT or other terror outfits which are openly working against India’s interests. India and its neo-secular liberals have so far been more than indulgent in ignoring national interests while pleading for jaw-jaw. During the past two decades, ersatz peaceniks have compelled various Indian governments to appoint commissions, special groups and even Union ministers to deal with Kashmir affairs so that separatists and terrorists can run the state with guns and primitive laws. But PM Narendra Modi doesn’t look like a pushover. While Manmohan Singh wanted to create dubious history by converting the LoC into international territory, Modi is determined to hoist the saffron flag at Lal Chowk and chant Vande Matram in the J&K Assembly. The Valley may witness more blood spilling in the weeks to come, but the growing faith of Kashmiris in the Indian state is encouraging them to walk through the torrent of bullets to reach for ballots to become an equal partner in the unity and growth of the nation.

 prabhuchawla@newindianexpress.com Follow me on Twitter @PrabhuChawla

Floods Have Made Bond between J & K ... Power & Politics/ The Sunday Standard/ September 14, 2014

Floods Have Made Bond Between J and K and Bharat Stronger, Article 370 Notwithstanding

Irony is the constant companion of contradiction. So far Jammu and Kashmir has enjoyed special status under Article 370. Last week, its people realised that a separate constitutional identity was no guarantee against nature’s fury. When the state structure—created under Article 370—collapsed like ninepins, it was the Union of India comprising all 29 states and seven Union territories which rose in unison to save its most splendorous geographical entity. The rest of the nation just forgot that a large number of locals from the Valley, including members of the ruling parties and separatists, were against the Indian state. For the past 65 years, they have been waging a war to retain J&K’s special status on paper only. They have been silent on the forced ethnic cleansing which drove Pundits out of the Valley. They have kept quiet when innocent Army personnel and helpless Kashmiris were killed in terrorist attacks. Over 90,000 people have lost their lives in the state during the past 25 years. Yet, India has been doling out grants to Kashmir, enabling it to compete with other states in terms of development. But the funds have only made a few people rich and rest of the state poorer. A special category of citizens who are the actual beneficiaries of the special status are the ones who are indirectly fuelling the fight against the abrogation of Article 370. But as the flood situation worsened, even hardcore supporters of separatists cursed the special status. All of them were looking to the Indian Army, Central government officials, PM Narendra Modi and his minister in the PMO, Jitendra Singh, to save them from apocalypse. It has taken a tragedy of immense proportions to turn J&K, an integral part of India, to become an inseparable member of Bharat Parivar. Despite Article 370, Srinagar was “taken away” from CM Omar Abdullah by the rapacious flow of water and his government was “totally inundated”. A team of officials led by Union Home Secretary Anil Goswami and Indian paramilitary forces ultimately prevented the devastation of a state and its people. The PM also dispatched IAS officer Ajay Kumar Pradyot to Kashmir to set up a system to track missing people and trace them, in the manner he did in Uttarakhand.

When 20,000 personnel drawn from the defence forces, equipped with modern communications systems and other equipment, were evacuating people, the local administration led by its young and acerbic CM was conspicuous by its absence. None of its two dozen ministers, 90 IAS officers and over 100 IPS officers were seen in action. Instead of asking his ministers to go out and save the people, Omar sent six of them to Delhi to demand money. He wasn’t even able to control stone-pelting by hired separatist goons to sabotage relief operations. Normally, in such a situation the CM, Chief Secretary and DGP take direct charge to minimise casualties and damage to property and livestock. Instead, Chief Secretary Mohammad Iqbal Khandey and DGP Rajendra Kumar were looking for safe havens from floodwaters, for themselves and friends. It is possible that most of them couldn’t step out of their homes due to excessive flooding. But none of them had any clue or plan in place to deal with natural disasters. Surprisingly, the website of the J&K Police defines the force as a “saga of sacrifice and courage”. But not one of its members was in sight to prove the slogan right.

The stranded inhabitants of the Valley chased away local politicians belonging to regional parties and even the Congress. They were genuinely upset over the total failure of the state machinery to rise to the occasion. J&K enjoys the dubious distinction of having one of the lowest GDP growth rates in spite of huge Central grants. What really takes the cake is that the state not only has a full-fledged Cabinet minister for flood control, Shyam Lal Sharma of the Congress, but also has a well-appointed office of J&K State Disaster Response Force in Srinagar. Set up in 2012, it has two battalions headed by an Inspector General of Police assisted by a Deputy Inspector General of Police. State leaders have been claiming that they had never expected such a large-scale disaster. However, in February this year, Omar himself had warned of such an eventuality. His government had hosted a two-day ‘State Level Conference of Disaster Preparedness and Mitigation’, which was addressed by him. At the meet, Omar spoke about the growing natural threat faced by the state and wanted the Centre to pay special attention. Experts from the National Disaster Management Authority also participated and gave their views on pompous-sounding subjects like ‘Overview of the Incident Response System and Disaster Management Architecture in India with Special Focus on vulnerability of Jammu & Kashmir’.

In reality, neither did the state government nor Kashmir’s permanent agitationists bother about the slow and steady degeneration of governance. All of them, including the Congress and National Conference, were more interested in keeping Article 370 on the statute book for the sake of preserving their vote banks. In the process, the safety of the state and its people became the casualty. For the past three decades, enormous time and energy has been wasted in debating the autonomy of the state, the role of Indian Army and human rights violations. In fact, the politics of the state revolved around keeping Kashmir deprived of the fruits of growth and prosperity, which the rest of India was witnessing. Any attempt by the Centre to connect Kashmir with other parts of country by road and rail were foiled by extremists. Even power projects were targeted and outside workers killed and kidnapped. For Kashmir’s short-sighted leaders, keeping the state in abject poverty and illiteracy was the instrument used to widen the gap between the state and the rest of India. Unfortunately, it has taken a loss of over 300 lives and property worth thousands of crores to drill the point home that India takes care of even its most truculent states. For all Indians, J&K remains their most cherished heaven on earth. The existence or absence of Article 370 is meaningless and J&K and Bharat were never separated at birth, and shall never be. By cruel irony, the floods have only made the bond stronger.

prabhuchawla@newindianexpress.com;Follow me on Twitter @PrabhuChawla