Prime Minister Narendra Modi last week outlined the Centre’s commitment to the installation of a duly elected government in Jammu & Kashmir and urged political leaders from the region to fully support quick delimitation of constituencies so that elections could take place soon in the Union territory.
After his first meeting with leaders from Kashmir since August 2019, when his government turned the erstwhile J&K into a UT and ended the special status assured to it through Article 370, the PM tweeted, “Our priority is to strengthen grassroots democracy in J&K. Delimitation has to happen at a quick pace so that polls can happen and J&K gets an elected government that gives strength to J&K’s development trajectory.” In the meeting, he made a pointed reference that corruption free governance was increasing the faith of people in the administration.
While the government hinted that early assembly polls would be its priority, representatives of key players from the Valley - the National Conference, PDP and Apni Party - did not insist on restoration of statehood as a precondition for their participation.
The meeting was held against the backdrop of rampant expectation in certain quarters that the government might commit itself to early redemption of its promise to restore the UT to a state. But while home minister Amit Shah, in response to insistence from the NC, PDP and Congress, did reiterate the Centre’s commitment to upgrade the UT, he made it clear that the immediate priority was early holding of polls after the delimitation commission had wrapped up the exercise to redraw the boundaries of assembly constituencies.
The commission is scheduled to hold a meeting with representatives of political parties and MPs shortly. The attendees included National Conference leaders Farooq Abdullah and Omar Abdullah, PDP chief Mehbooba Mufti, Congress’s Ghulam Nabi Azad, Apni Party’s Altaf Hussain, CPM’s Yousuf Tarigami, Muzaffar Baig and Sajad Lone of People’s Conference besides BJP leaders from the UT.
No acrimony
The discussions went on for close to three and a half hours and were without acrimony or finger pointing with the PM setting the tone by saying there was no time limit for speakers to present their views. Modi, while appreciating the cordiality, expressed satisfaction that the deliberations reflected commitment to India’s territorial integrity and strength of its democracy. He told the attendees about his personal sorrow over each death in the trouble-torn state, be it of an “innocent civilian, the youth who has picked the gun or a member of the security forces.”
Expressing his wish to remove “Dilli ki doori” (distance between Centre and J&K) as well as “Dil ki doori” (distrust ), Modi said his government was fully committed to taking forward the democratic process in J&K against the backdrop of a three-tier panchayati raj system which is in place for the first time in the UT. Conduct of assembly polls, just like the DDC polls, was a priority, he added.
Though the Centre’s action to nullify Article 370 was criticised, it was not a sticking point or a faultine in the discussions. Most leaders called for restoration of statehood, but did not insist on it being a prerequisite for holding polls or their participation in it. It was felt that the decision to do away with J&K's special status was before the Supreme Court and should be settled there.
Mufti, the Abdullahs and Azad, all former CMs, articulated the need for restoration of democracy in J&K and the need to free political detenues. They said a bureaucratic arrangement under the lieutenant governor could not be a substitute for an assembly and an elected government.
