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Collapse of governance

“Our government,” Prime Minister Manmohan Singh told the Lok Sabha in March, “is resolute as indeed any democratic Government should be in defeating the forces of extremism and terrorism.” By way of follow-up, India’s armed forces and the Jammu and Kashmir police have been enforcing the most brutal crackdown the State has seen in almost two decades. Lethal force has repeatedly been used to dam the secessionist tide in Kashmir. In Jammu, the police have been pitted against stone-throwing protesters as well as chauvinist gangs intent on waging a communal war. More than 30 people have died, and hundreds have been injured. Each destroyed life is the consequence of a depressing series of failures. New Delhi and Srinagar failed to act when Islamists first started a campaign claiming the diversion of land to the Shri Amarnathji Shrine Board was a conspiracy to change Kashmir’s demography. Panicking when the protests snowballed in Kashmir, the State government revoked the order — sparking off a communally charged backlash in Jammu. Subsequently, the State and Central governments failed to assuage fears that Kashmir was facing an existence-threatening blockade, thus fuelling support for an attempted march across the Line of Control. Force had to be used to stop the marchers, sparking off another round of violence. At this point, the State government simply collapsed, ceding power to Islamists in Kashmir and Hindutva groups in Jammu.

Put simply, New Delhi allowed matters to drift to a point where it was left with no resources other than coercive tools. It will be comforting to believe this was an aberration brought about by inept leadership and unfortunate circumstances. As diverse crises from the Manipur violence of 2004 to the escalation of Maoist violence this year show, the Central government routinely buries its head in the sand. Over the past two years Islamists have been waging incendiary campaigns claiming that India was engaged in conspiracies to undermine Kashmir’s ethnic-religious character. In Jammu, Hindutva groups became increasingly aggressive, threatening violence against Muslims. J&K’s government — with New Delhi’s benign assent — followed a policy of inactivity that was anything but masterly. This newspaper in its reportage and editorial comment has repeatedly, along with a number of secular-democratic voices, expressed concern over the dangerous drift in Kashmir. With a full-fledged crisis on its hands and the country’s most vulnerable State communally polarised as rarely before, the United Progressive Alliance regime seems to be moving towards a one-sided solution, which will be widely perceived to be at the expense of the people of Kashmir. If that happens, a bad situation could get horribly worse.

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