The uncontrollable violent turbulence in the Kashmir Valley for months now and the total failure of the State Government in handling effectively the aftermath of the flash floods washing away parts of Leh, the capital of the Ladakh Region highlights the fact that a spell of prolonged President’s rule is an inescapable imperative. It seems that effective political governance and disaster relief are beyond the grasp of the Congress Party–National Conference Coalition Government. India can ill-afford that a sensitive border Indian State like Jammu and Kashmir targeted for constant destabilization by Pakistan-sponsored Jihadi terrorist organizations and their collaborators in the Valley, to downslide into anarchy.
Instead of concentrating on providing good governance and a political outreach to the alienated sections in the Kashmir Valley, all that the Chief Minister can do is to talk about more political autonomy. The moot point is that even when there was full political autonomy in Kashmir, governance was equally bad. The Kashmir Valley political dynasties on which successive Congress Governments have relied have failed both India and the people of Jammu and Kashmir.
India’s Central Governments across the board have failed to ensure that this crucial border Indian State could provide effective governance by holding the Chief Ministers to accountability for the financial largesse that was constantly bestowed on the Valley in particular, as compared to the Jammu and Ladakh Regions. The various Central Governments shirked from coming to grips with the main challenge that faced India namely the full emotional integration of the Valley Muslims with India who were most susceptible to Pakistani subversion.
The Central Governments have perpetuated this State’s ‘separateness’ and more specifically the ‘separateness’ of the Kashmir Valley from the rest of India by shirking to remove the applicability of Article 370 to Jammu and Kashmir and which in any case was not originally meant for Kashmir.
If India’s political leaders are willing to talk to Kashmiri separatists what holds them back from applying the same yardstick o other insurgent movements within India where secession is not the issue?
Coming back to the Jammu and Kashmir State Government, what holds it back from providing effective governance and neutralizing the demands for ‘Azadi’? When the State Government resorts to the fig-leaf of greater ‘political autonomy’ to hide its misgovernance, it is in effect advocating for ‘azadi’ by a different label.
The present Government in Srinagar can also be faulted for not placing the Jammu and Kashmir Police in the front-window for crowd control of the turbulent and Pakistan collaborators- incited youth demonstrators? Obviously, the Jammu and Kashmir Police in the Valley is either sympathetic to the crowds which indicates that they too are disillusioned with the State Government’s approach to the turbulence or they are being deliberately being held back for political reasons by the State Government or that they are just being cowardly in facing the ire of their co-religionists.
In either case it reflects a compete abdication of authority by the State Government of the ruling Coalition Government of the Congress Party and the National Conference.
For far too long has have the Congress Governments and the BJP too relied upon running the administration of the vital State of Jammu and Kashmir by the political dynasties from Kashmir Valley; with the exception of Ghulam Nabi Azad.
Jammu and Kashmir State is crucially critical for the India’s national security as it borders India’s two major military adversaries, namely Pakistan and China. It is therefore cannot be left to the vagaries of political compulsions of coalition politics of the ruling Congress Party at the Centre and in Srinagar.
The Indian Army at great cost had stabilized the turbulence in the Valley which now stands frittered by the follies of the Congress Party both in New Delhi and in coalition in Srinagar.
In the interests of India’s national security ,placing the State of Jammu and Kashmir under Presidents Rule is an inescapable strategic and political imperative.
