Autonomy - A Constitutional Anachronism
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 fter the burning summer of 2010 which saw gangs of stone pelters being cause to more than 100 deaths on the roads of Kashmir, the Government of India convened an All Parties Meeting to discuss the grim situation. It detailed a Group of Interlocutors to go into the Kashmir muddle and suggest problem resolution measures after interacting with wide cross sections of people in the state. The Group started meeting different segments of people living in three divisions of the state; Jammu,Kashmir and Ladakh.The Group is headed by Daleep Padgoankar, a prominent journalist who controversially had not been able to resist the affluent hospitality of Gulam Nabi Fai, a Kashmiri American who lobbied for Pakistani interests in Kashmir with funds from Pakistan’s spy agency, ISI. The same Fai was exposed by the FBI and has been sentenced to serve time in prison.Leaks started appearing in Indian Media since July 2011 that the Group has formulated its report which it has already presented to the Government on 12th of October. Though details of the report have not been made public,yet leaks had started appearing since July 2011 itself.During its interactions in Kashmir, the Group was confronted with diverse and divergent views and many different shades of opinion. The Group made earnest efforts to contact and meet the separatists and the leaders of their conglomerate Hurriyat Conference. However, the Interlocutors Group failed to induce the separatists into a dialog even though its members went out of their way to meet some separatists at their homes, without invitations. Only one separatist leader, Maulana Abbas Ansari who is reported to have turned a moderate after being disillusioned by the negative thinking and stubborn attitude of the extremists, responded to the call of the Group and interacted with it. It is rumored that the Group has come to some sweeping conclusions on the basis of its skewed observations of the ground situation in the valley and distorted study of the history of the Kashmir Problem. It has been floated that the Group is in favor of the resurrection of the anachronistic Pre-1953 position and status of the state in the Union of India. The Group seems interested in foisting a solution to the Kashmir imbroglio by ignoring and underplaying the legitimate aspirations of the majority people of the state, while trying to buy peace with a miniscule segment of volatile separatists who work on the behest of Pakistan. These are the aspirations of the people of Ladakh province, Jammu province and majority people living in Pakistan Occupied Kashmir. This is also notwithstanding the fact that Kashmiri Pandits, Kashmiri Sikhs, nationalist Muslims of the valley, Gujjars and Bakarwals think that their future is safe and secure only with the present political structure of the state, which is integrated with India. The leaked report if true seems to be based on a made-up view of the political history of Kashmir which compromises its march on the road of democratic decentralized governance. The report seems to suggest undoing all that has been achieved till date since 1947 regarding the accession of the state with the Union of India and its evolution for full and complete administrative, financial and social integration with India. The group suggests reversion of the state to pre-1953 status by restricting the accession of the state with the Union only in Defense, Foreign Affairs and Communications (the position that prevailed before 1953). Excepting the above three subjects, all other subjects from Union List, State List and Concurrent List will remain the prerogative of the State Legislature. Such a move seems to isolate the state from technological, scientific, industrial and financial gains that the emerging power house of India is otherwise going to confer on the state. Besides, such a move will amount to tampering with the basic structure of India, which even the Government of India, not to speak of this group, is authorized to suggest. It will be relevant to state that Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh acceded to the Union of India through its sovereign ruler in 1947 by virtue of the Instrument of Accession. After that legal accession by the ruler of the state, the same was endorsed by the political will of the people of the state and even through National Conference and its leader Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah. The accession was further ratified by the Constituent Assembly of the state. This accession of the state was subsequently incorporated in the Constitution of India. After this accession was complete in both de-jure and de-facto terms, the relations between state and Centre were streamlined through subsequent agreements, covenants and protocols, which also provided some safeguards to the state to respect and maintain its special socio-cultural ethos within the Union of India. Now all central laws and other welfare schemes and regulations could be extended to the state without endorsement and ratification by the state legislature. It was only on persistent political demand of the then establishment and potent democratic desire of civil society that such laws were extended to the state by virtue of constitutional amendments and executive orders, through due process of law. Thus solid links and relations were established between the state and Centre to bring it at par with remaining states of the country, so that all gains of planning and development and social welfare would percolate to the Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh state also. It is believed that the Interlocutor Group feels that the original quantum of autonomy granted to the state has been reduced and restricted. It suggests that the autonomy needs to be reverted back to the state to restore confidence of the people. The Group even proposes necessary amendments to the constitution to revert these powers back to the state. The Group feels that erosion and dilution in such powers of the state disturbed the special status and autonomy of the state, which led to the present crisis of confidence. The group advocates the need to restore back this autonomy and special status to the state. The Group also feels that there is a need for constitutional guarantee to the state that these powers will remain sacrosanct after they are restored back to the state. It is even thought that the Group wants a fresh discussion on accession so that it is brought into focus again. The Group would be touching its nadir if due to its sentiment of appeasement for tiny, volatile sections of people in the valley,all IAS, IPS and IFS Officers are to be repatriated and replaced by local cadre officers, the aim being to insulate the state from influences of other states and the Centre. The irony is that even without making this as a matter of law, most Central Cadre posts in Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh are held by people from the state, the majority being with Kashmiri Muslims. Such solutions to the state’s problems would be coming from a convoluted and regressive view. In the present climate of globalization of economy and international collaborations in technology sectors, such a view is not only weird but self defeating also. We can not afford to suggest and create ghettos of stinking isolation and poverty, leading to criminalization and violence, just because Pakistan spy agency funded people desire a slanted vision of autonomy in Kashmir. Ideal dreamlands of autonomy cannot be created without solid economic and technological infrastructure, which is not possible without healthy integration, because the state is deficient in resources. By use of the same convoluted logic, the Group seems to have suggested that the jurisdiction of Supreme Court and Election Commissioner needs also to be divested from the state in order to placate the separatist sentiments. Observing the track record of Public Interest Litigations and Judicial activism practiced in India,any sane person can boast of being a citizen of a great country whose citizen interests are safeguarded and protected by a vibrant judiciary, which has no relations and biases. Equally the herculean tasks that the office of the Election Commission of India has performed in the country and outside of it need not to be underplayed in order to satisfy the whims of local satraps who are known to murder the electoral system, as happened decades back when a number of candidates were declared returned unopposed from Anantnagh district in Kashmir valley. If that is not all, talk is that the Group also suggests that the right and the duty of Centre to appoint and remove a Governor of the state need also to be divested. The Group wants the state Governor to be called as Sadri-Riyasat who will be appointed only after being recommended for appointment by the state legislature, as used to happen prior to 1953. Equally Chief Minister of the state is proposed to be re-designated as Prime Minister of the state, as was done before 1953.It will be the right time to state that both in Unitary and Federal polity there is no scope for a State within a State. Proper framework and infrastructure for state-central relations is duly established in the constitution, which need not be tampered with just to appease a vote bank urge of local politicians. It took a great deal of deliberations, discussions and arguments to reach the current state and there is no need to reinstate anachronisms in the constitution. The Group is believed wanting to rescind the Constitutional Amendment of 1956 that declares the state of Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh as a constituent of the Union of India. It needs to be pondered over if a Group of Interlocutors appointed by an executive can tender its advice on such a core and fundamental issue which can impact the basic structure of the Constitution of India as well as its territorial integrity. All constitutional amendments, those facilitated extension of services, facilities, schemes of human and social welfare and other technological developments are likewise to be withdrawn. This covers amendment of Article 312 and Article 249 extending All India Services to the state and empowering Parliament to legislate on any matter which has national and security ramifications. On the political spectrum, the National Conference and PDP, which have not yet come out of their valley Muslim centric politics of appeasement, seem to be consenting with the suggestions of the Group. While Congress party is still ambivalent due to vote bank inhibitions, BJP, Panthers party and Ladakh Buddhist Association are outright opposed to the idea. Besides people of Jammu and Ladakh, Kashmiri Pandits, many Kashmiri Muslims and Sikhs too are averse to the move. All of them rightfully apprehend basic and structural risks and damages to the state and to the integrity of India that such a reversion to pre-1953 status is fraught with. This is more so when India is already beset with multiple fissiparous problems of Maoists and extremists in other parts of the country. Constitutional History of India cannot be redrafted to appease the emotive urges of a small group of disgruntled and volatile politicians who are prompted, abetted and financed by their masters from across the borders. Such political sops in whatever colors and presentation form, will give a message of India being a soft state which is not able to protect its integrity because its politicians cater more to volatile and aggressive groups which fester the country’s wounds of the past. Most painful part of this exercise of the interlocutors may be that we create a Frankenstein who is going to spare no one. All sincere concerns and anxieties of the patriotic people of Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh and cannot be ignored and set aside as politically inconvenient. Besides, the Group has refused to gauge the frustrations and the disappointments of the Muslims living in Pakistan Occupied Kashmir, who have lived and suffered with Pakistan for six decades since they were occupied by the Pakistani army and its raiders. Powers at the Centre need to transgress petty political and party interests and reject any such purported report of Interlocutors. This is their call to duty. |
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Presently he is working on his varied interests besides being a consulting Director of a software services company. |
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*P.N.Ganjoo was born in a modest Kashmiri family about 7 decades ago, lost his father early and was raised by his honest, hardworking mother. With her efforts he received his education in Srinagar and went on to serve in various Government Departments before retiring as a senior grade KAS officer.