Jammu and Kashmir deserves a shot at grassroots democracy

While the PDP and the BJP have been negotiating to form a government in Jammu and Kashmir since the most successful Assembly elections in December last year, it is important to know why a government in the turbulent state is so necessary. Unfortunately, there is a lack of informed discussion on this issue and most would go along with the benign option of the governor’s rule, in the belief that the two parties in negotiation form strange bedfellows.

Ill-informed opinion has been veering towards a fresh election to create a more decisive political mandate for any political party in the fray for political power. Such a mandate is unlikely, which is why the BJP and the PDP’s reported agreement to form the government is in national interest.

Opportunity

What is this national interest which is being spoken of? Why would that be a win-win situation for the country? It is necessary to understand this. The Assembly elections of December 2014 drew tremendous energy and dynamism from the diverse electorate. The results lay to rest the possibility of a single-party government but also produced a situation which has never existed in the state — the creation of an "empowered Jammu" and an "empowered Kashmir" with an "empowered Ladakh" on the fringe, the latter depending on how one views the Congress victory in the high altitude districts of J&K.

With the BJP victory politically empowering Jammu, came alive the feasibility of a more integrated government with a perception of serving the interests of the two major regions — and by compulsion the interests of Ladakh. In narrow terms, the PDP has a clear mandate within the Kashmir region and the BJP in Jammu. They may be ideologically far removed in perception but are clear that an integrated and equitable growth of both regions serves national interest and dilutes separatism. The PDP made a brave democratic attempt to win favour in the Jammu region as much as the BJP did the same in Kashmir. However, both now respect the fact that they did not succeed. Therefore, the feasibility of moving forward on stated stands is well-nigh impossible. The next best option for the two parties with clear mandates in their respective regions is to enhance the potential of development of both regions.

There are avenues which have been unchartered in the development agenda. The potential of the business interests of Jammu and of Kashmir has never been seen as a whole and this is where the meeting point lies, away from the divisive agenda of Article 370, West Pakistan refugees and AFSPA.

Challenges

To expect that there will be solutions to these intractable issues in the given timeframe, is unrealistic. Which is why, it is important that a government must come into place and create empowered bodies to discuss the sticky issues, even as the development agenda and governance continue unimpeded. Both parties are known for their maturity and ability to get down to business. National interest demands that they separate their differences into a different line and continue discussions on them while they deliver to the people in spheres for which the people voted.

National interest must also be viewed with the ground situation in J&K in focus. In 1996 when the Farooq Abdullah government was voted to power after six years of internal conflict, the electoral turnout was poor; it only marginally improved through various elections till 2008. J&K’s (particularly Kashmir) political landscape was without the enthusiastic grassroots political energy, usually characterised in vibrant democracies. Little did visitors from other states or the mainstream media ever realise that political activity in J&K was limited mainly to road heads and many times to just the PWD bungalows at district or tehsil headquarters. The political community could not be blamed for this because the security situation did not permit free movement and gathering. The problem is that grassroots politics came to be associated with just this level of outreach and J&K really missed a decade or more of true democracy. It nearly came back with the panchayat elections of 2011 which received tremendous energy, but the political community refused empowerment to the local bodies. The separatists and the ideologues, fearing this empowerment, also targeted selected sarpanchs and panchayat members, to prevent democratic institutions taking roots.

Democracy

The empowerment of the sarpanchs would have been a celebratory event in the grim politics of J&K, beset as it is with the pulls of regional divide and separatism. It would have delivered the nation’s democratic progress to a region which had suffered the negatives of lack of development and corruption.

The exciting experiments in 2011-12 to reach the grassroots through the enablement of the political class and the administrators by the security forces were a trigger for the enthusiasm which built up as a counter-narrative; the people’s every day issues could be resolved in way out areas where no leadership had ventured for years. The two electoral exercises of 2014 must be viewed in this light. Both received huge response and not necessarily because of the popular perception that it was to keep the BJP out of Kashmir.

When you look back in time and view these observations, the entire issue of national interest stares in the face. It would be a travesty if no government came into place even after the people had put their head and heart in the polls which was a victory for India’s democracy and indeed its values. The absence of an elected government will rob J&K the opportunity to return to grassroots democracy, something which can commence and take forward the counter-narrative set up by the emergence of political power balance within the state.