@prashanthamine
Mumbai: The outbreak of the Coronavirus pandemic could not have come at the ill opportune time for the Prime Minister Narendra Modi led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government as it had hoped to turn things around after having abrogated Article 370 in the Rajya Sabha on this very day. Politically it did all the things to keep its poll promise of abrogating the contentious article in the Constitution of India. But it is the economic impact of the Covid-19 pandemic that has put breaks on its plans for Jammu and Kashmir.
The gravity of the situation and the importance attached to it by the government can be gauged from the fact that prior to the abrogation of Article 370 the government had dispatched its National Security Advisor (NSA) Ajit Doval in July 2019. After the abrogation of the Article 370, Doval was thrice sent to J&K in a span of three months of August to October, 2019 to ensure that the situation did not spiral out of control.
Although the Covid-19 pandemic has put a dampener on the government’s efforts to revive the economic activities, it has begun using the time to set rolling the political agenda. In February earlier this year, the government held bypolls to Panchayats in the Union Territory.
The administration has launched the exercise of delimitation of the 89 assembly constituencies in erstwhile Jammu and Kashmir assembly. Once that happens the ratio of assembly constituencies in the Kashmir valley to that of the plains of Jammu will change in the favor of the latter. This is bound to alter the political equations in the valley as the plains will dominate the future political discourse.
The Election Commission of India (ECI) has been keeping a hawkish eye on the entire delimitation process. It was little wonder then that Lieutenant Governor, Girish Chandra Murmu had to face the ire of the ECI after he opinionated that polls will be held after the delimitation exercise was over, prompting the poll body to issue a sharply worded statement that polls were its ‘sole remit’ and such statements tantamount to interfering in its constitutional mandate.
Right now Kashmiri Pandits are busy securing their domicile certificates, since most of them had left the valley in the mass exodus in the 1990’s. The Kashmiri Pandit community is trying to enroll itself as voters and is keen on taking part in the electoral and political process of the valley.
National Conference (NC) leader and former chief minister Omar Abdullah has announced that his party would boycott the process until and unless statehood was not restored upon J&K. A thing which the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) led government has not committed itself to as yet.
Besides this, the reintegration of the Kashmiri Pandits back in the valley is a ticklish issue that remains to be resolved. Also the government still needs to ally the apprehensions that some locals have about the outsiders taking away their properties and jobs, post abrogation of the contentious article.
Although it has released some politicians like Sajjad Gani Lone from detention after almost a year, it has not released Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) leader Mehbooba Mufti as yet. With the pandemic still running rife, the need of the hour for the government would be to revive the local economy.
The administration now has begun directly purchasing apples from the farmers at a assured minimum procurement price. With the Panchayat elections under its belt, the administration has now begun arming the Sarpanchs with financial powers to undertake local civic projects.
As far as curbing terrorist activities in the valley, till July last month about 120 terror related cases were reported as against 175 cases reported last year. While 101 terrorists were eliminated in 2019, so far 75 terrorists have been gunned down till July this year. Likewise, the casualties in the security forces this year has been 35 security personnel losing their lives till July this year as against 75 lives lost in the same period last year.
As per Government of India’s (GoI) own data it has put emphasis on completing 59 infrastructure projects with a total investment of Rs 88,453.75 crore. Most of these projects include hydro power projects, transport, roads, water supply, sanitation, health and other social infrastructures.
Biggest of them all is the world’s tallest bridge, the Chenab bridge on the river Chenab between Bakkal (Katra) and Kauri (Srinagar). Construction on the 359 meter tall and 1,315 meter long bridge began in August 2004 and is expected to be completed in December 2021. Once constructed it will link the Srinagar valley with the rest of the country. It is part of the Jammu-Udhampur-Srinagar-Baramulla rail line, part of the line is already in operation.
On the political front, with state run public broadcasters Doordarshan and All India Radio (AIR) telecasting weather forecasts for Pakistan Occupied Kashmir (PoK) areas of Gilgit-Baltistan from May 6 this year, it has served a notice to Pakistan on its intentions of integrating the disputed territories back in the Indian union.
Besides this, by making J&K and Leh-Ladakh into a Union Territory, the government has deftly restricted the contentious issue to Gilgit-Baltistan and Aksai Chin. It could be one of the reasons why there is a continued military stand-off with China along the north-eastern borders of Ladakh.
