Jammu and Kashmir - Government
Kashmir qualifies as the most militarised zone on earth. As already admitted by the Mehbooba Mufti government, 20,000 hectares of land is under occupation of the Indian army. That means there is very little habitable land to go around for its new residents without deforestation in Kashmir. The new J&K administration modified a law in 2020 to facilitate smooth construction in 'strategic areas' for the requirements of armed forces. The 'strategic areas' have been vaguely defined by the government as locations which will fulfil the operational needs of the armed forces.
People in India-administered Kashmir woke up on New Year's Day 01 January 2022 to find that three of their former chief ministers had been put under house arrest, following plans to protest a proposal to redraw the region's electoral map. The arrests were made to prevent the politicians from protesting against the proposal, which critics said could lead to the underrepresentation of Muslims in electoral politics. Under the Delimitation Commission's proposal, 56% of the population live in Kashmir, which was proposed to get only 52% seats in the legislative assembly.
The draft proposed the creation of six new seats in Hindu-dominated Jammu province, against just one seat in the Muslim-dominated Kashmir Valley, which does not align with the population ratios of the provinces. The remapping will take the number of assembly seats in Jammu to 43, up from the existing 37, and 47 in Kashmir, up from 46, although the Kashmir Valley's population accounts for just over half of the region's total. Jammu has historically been allotted more seats since 1951, when the Delimitation of Parliamentary and Assembly Constituencies Order was first issued. India's ruling Bharatiya Janata party (BJP) has also been increasingly adding more seats, disproportionate to the population, in recent years. The BJP has additionally been pushing to install a Hindu chief minister in the Muslim-majority region.
Some critics say that the efforts to redraw constituency lines in the region indicate the BJP's intention to water down the political power of the region as a whole. "The Delimitation Commission proposal seems to be a step in the direction of converting Kashmiris, a demographic majority, into a political minority," said Haseeb Drabu, a former finance minister of Jammu and Kashmir. "One is curious as to why the Delimitation Commission decided to announce the allocation of six seats to Jammu and one to Kashmir. Neither Jammu nor Kashmir is an electoral constituency. The two are administrative divisions, not representational categories," Drabu said. The last elected government in Jammu and Kashmir was a coalition between the Peoples Democratic Party and BJP. In 2018, the government collapsed and since, the region has been directly ruled by the Indian federal government through its representatives. After J&K was formally downgraded into a Union Territory, with the entire political leadership in detention, the reigns of the region were in the hands of the centre.
Hours before the Indian government announced the decision to annex Kashmir last year, it jailed all the pro-India and pro-freedom leaders in Jammu and Kashmir, not even sparing allies. Three Chief Ministers of Jammu and Kashmir were among those detained. While two of them have been released, the lone female former head of the Jammu and Kashmir government continues to remain in detention. Besides them, the entire pro-freedom leadership remains jailed a year later. The incarceration of politicians essentially stifled and then completely curbed mainstream political activities in the Valley.
The Indian government appointed its representative, Lieutenant-Governor G C Murmu, to administer Kashmir. Under his watch, a slew of orders were passed aimed at changing the political and geographical demography of Kashmir. The special status of J&K identified Kashmiris as permanent citizens of the region, which essentially meant that anyone from outside the region could not become a citizen. The status prevented anyone from outside to apply for jobs or buy property in Kashmir - a shield aimed at preserving the political and cultural identity of the region.
The Kashmir Valley has been under a series of lockdowns since August 5 last year. The government-induced curfew lasted several months followed by the civil shutdown that stretched until winter, the period when both business and life go slow in the Valley. The winter was followed by a coronavirus-induced lockdown that continued.
a significant change that concerns Kashmiris is the waning presence of Kashmiri Muslims in the upper echelons of the administration. This has been reminiscent of the infamous rule of Hindu kings in Kashmir when the representation of Kashmiri Muslims in the administration and offices was dismal, despite being a predominantly Muslim-majority region.
A senior pro-India politician in Kashmir, Ghulam Hasan Mir, says that that Kashmiri Muslims were being sidelined in the administration. “In the civil bureaucracy, police and judiciary, Muslims in Kashmir feel nowhere. They are being sidelined and there is complete imbalance in the system. Kashmiris are found nowhere and even in the Civil Secretariat, the seat of power, the dejected Kashmiri officers are feeling detached,” Hasan Mir told a local news outlet.
The local administration of J&K was paralysed. Earlier, mainstream politicians at the very least gave the administration a “local flavour," but with mainstream politics in shambles now, it is overtly a complete colonial setup where everything is decided from New Delhi and it simply is communicated to the administration at the highest level. Now that does not trickle down to the lower levers. Obviously, because that administration at the highest level comprises of outsiders who have no knack with those at lower level.
The BJP, while it had announced bifurcating J&K into two Union Territories, said it would restore statehood to the region after the situation turns normal. Nobody can predict what the future will be for mainstream politics in Kashmir. Obviously it is impacted. There are many political leaders who were still under detention at 2020 year's end.
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