Protests in Kashmir over the decision to create new administrative units are largely for two reasons. The first is that the State Government will not be able to handle the financial burden of the decision. And the second is the people’s fear of disempowerment
These days, a macadamised parking space in the vicinity of Press Enclave at Residency Road in Srinagar offers stage to peculiar protests. Villagers holding placards and equipped with public address systems disembark from hired vehicles to vent their resentment against the State Cabinet’s approval to the creation of 669 administrative units in Jammu & Kashmir. The announcement did cause jubilation in benefitted pockets but the left-over areas’ anger subdued it.
The villagers of Khorbatpora and Drubgam pockets in south Kashmir caught the media glare as they wore white aprons resembling shrouds, an exhibition of their will to die in support of getting an administrative unit for their area. The symbolic protest replicated the massive protests in early 1990s when the shroud-wearing youngsters vowed to fight for azaadi. Perhaps this prompted separatist leader Syed Ali Geelani to infer that the creation of administrative units was an attempt to change the political discourse in Kashmir.
The coalition Government shrewdly timed the announcement to mobilise people ahead of the parliamentary and Assembly elections. Chief Minister Omar Abdullah added an element of drama when he pointed towards a ‘rift’ with his coalition partner over the new creations. He threatened to resign if the Congress high command did not sort out the issue and asked Deputy Chief Minister Tara Chand to submit the Cabinet Sub-Committee report before the State Cabinet on February 1 to finalise the new creations. Mr Chand headed the CSC comprising Ministers from both coalition parties, which overhauled the recommendations put forth by two separate committees headed by former bureaucrats Sudhir Belorea and Mushtaq Ganai.
The Chief Minister had been given to understand that the Congress was delaying the finalisation of new creations. However, after the intervention of the Congress’s bosses in New Delhi, it turned out that the Congress wanted a bigger share to cater to its vote-bank in Jammu and ladakh. Expectedly, Mr Abdullah acquiesced because his continuation and future prospects depend on the Congress’s support.
Interestingly, Mr Abdullah brought the administrative units’ issue in public domain two days after the Army closed down the Pathribal fake encounter case and acquitted its five officers previously held guilty by the Central Bureau of Investigation for shooting five civilians in cold blood before passing them off as foreign militants involved in Chattisighpora massacre of March 2000. The clamour for and against the administrative units prevailed over resentment on the Army’s decision.
Observers say that the creation of new administrative units — sub-divisions, tehsils, community development blocks and niabats — are devoid of rationale, albeit with an aim to achieve electoral gains. They say that a cash-starved State, which depends on Central assistance even for the monthly salaries it pays to its employees, will not be able to handle the extra burden that the new administrative units will place on the exchequer. The eight new districts created in Mr Ghulam Nabi Azad’s regime in 2006 are still lacking manpower and infrastructure. The new creations require 1,0511 employees with annual cumulative salary of around Rs 250 crore. Add to it another Rs 1,300 crore required for raising infrastructure. One wonders how Mr Abdullah would make the new administrative units functional within two months as he promised while announcing the Cabinet decision.
The Congress’s upper hand in the Government’s decision has not gone down well with people in the Kashmir valley. If population was a measuring rod, then Kashmir should have got a bigger share than other regions. The total population of the State, according to 2011 census, is 1.25 crore; with 55.03 per cent living in Kashmir province, 42.68 per cent in Jammu and 2.31 per cent in ladakh.
Before the new creations, the State had 501 administrative units, 223 in Kashmir valley, 239 in Jammu and 39 in ladakh. Now that the number has gone up to 1,170 units, the distribution of them has drastically altered the ratio. Of the 669 creations 348 (52.01 per cent) were given to Jammu region, 273 (40.8 per cent) to Kashmir Valley and 48 (7.17 per cent) to sparsely populated ladakh.
The disparity would be visible in all forms of administrative units (except districts) when the new setup starts functioning in April 2014. Jammu would be a conglomerate of 37 sub divisions, 110 tehsils, 150 CDBs and 290 niabats while Kashmir would possess 20 sub divisions, 93 tehsils, 138 CDBs and 245 niabats. ladakh, where the Congress rules the roost in twin districts of Kargil and leh, would be the biggest beneficiary with 10 sub divisions, 15 tehsils, 31 community development blocks and 31 niabats.
Mr Abdullah has not been able to do justice with his supposed pocket borough Srinagar, where his party’s clean sweep catapulted him to power in 2008 election. Jammu city is as important to the Congress as Srinagar is to the National Conference. Interestingly, the Congress managed to increase the number of tehsils in Jammu district from four to 21. Srinagar district got a raw deal. Its existing four tehsils would be fragmented into eight units. By getting a lion’s share for Jammu, the Congress, which wishfully thinks to form the next Government in Jammu & Kashmir on its own strength, tactfully managed to offset the BJP’s influence. The NC is sitting pretty with the indifference of Srinagar population on the new creations because cold- shouldering of elections by the people and the low turnout have proven in the past as the only saviour for the party.
The emerging situation compelled the People’s Democratic Party to launch a tirade against the ruling coalition for its own vote-bank politics. The PDP created ruckus in the Assembly to the extent of forcing Governor NN Vohra to leave his inaugural address of the Budget Session midway. One of the PDP legislators was knocked down in the House and had to be escorted to the Jammu Medical Hospital on a stretcher. The PDP leaders are backing protestors, mainly from south Kashmir, who descend down to Residency Road every day to register their resentment. In many pockets of the valley, shutdowns continue since the beginning of February when the Cabinet decision on creations was taken. The intense resentment compelled the Chief Minister to announce on the floor of the House that an expert panel would be set-up to look into grievances of various pockets and to recommend corrective measures in next three months.
Some political analysts in Kashmir say that the Congress would attempt to reap short-term benefits in the forthcoming election over the creation of new administrative units. However, they suspect that the move has set the stage for a long-term construct to gradually disempower the Kashmiri population. They say that the target would be a delimitation of the Assembly segments, which is currently barred until 2026 as per a Supreme Court ruling adopted by the J&K Assembly. The 89-member House gets 46 members elected from Kashmir, 37 from Jammu and four from ladakh — apart from two nominated members.
If that is the case, it may not be altogether misplaced for demonstrators to wear shrouds as a mark of protest.