Task in the Valley (Indian Express)

Mains Paper 2 : Polity
Prelims level : Block Development Council
Mains level : Challenges ahead for formation of new Union Territories

Context

• As the decision to divide Jammu and Kashmir into two Union Territories takes effect, much remains to be done.

Tasks pending

• The work of dividing the manpower and material resources of the state is far from over.
• There is no papering over the stark ground reality that the government is yet to allow the people of the Valley to speak out, and be heard, on decisions that affect them the most.
• The government functionaries have described and defended the August 5 decisions as necessitated by the need to “develop” a state that had ostensibly lagged behind the rest of the country on economic and social fronts due to its special status.
• The government’s plans to bring Jammu and Kashmir up to speed are not yet known.
• But clearly, any efforts in this direction would, crucially, need the participation of the people for whom this development is meant.
• The government needs to free the political leaders and workers who have been detained, and allow people to freely express their views in the Valley.

Role of Block Development Council election

• The Block Development Council election has shown that wiping the slate clean and creating a new leadership is difficult, if not impossible, in situations as fraught as those that exist in the Valley.
• The BDC is elected indirectly, that is, elected panchs and sarpanchs of a particular block of villages vote to elect one among them as the head of that block council.
• In Jammu and Kashmir panchayat polls, many of these representatives of the people at the bottom-most tier of electoral democracy continue to seek refuge in a hotel in uptown Srinagar, away from their villages.
• The persistence of fear has only underlined the questions of legitimacy about an electoral exercise at the end of which many seats of panch and sapanch in the Valley lay vacant, and most of those elected were elected unopposed.

Challenges ahead

• It remains to be seen whether and how the conversion of a state into two Union Territories resolves the 70-year-long troubled relationship between Kashmir and the rest of India, and between India and Pakistan over Kashmir.
• The killing of five migrant workers in Kulgam on the heels of several other deadly attacks on non-residents, shows that peace may remain elusive even after the momentous changes bring the state directly under the control of the Union Home Ministry.

Conclusion

• It is easy to lose sight of this in the din and rhetoric on Kashmir, but the first step towards resolving a problem is to acknowledge it.
• Political alienation that has spread and deepened over generations is a large part of the crisis in Kashmir.
• Unless it is addressed politically, it will persist and continue to impose a heavy toll in the Valley, and the country.

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Prelims Questions:

Q.1) What is ‘Navarro recession’, recently seen in news?
A. It highlights the manner in which misguided trade and currency policies by the current U.S. administration.
B. It represents the sharp decline in economic activity during the late 2000s.
C. It refers to the unusual problem faced by Japan since the 1990s when net private savings is high despite near-zero interest rates.
D. None of the above

Answer: A
Mains Questions:
Q.1) What are the key challenges ahead by forming new Union Territories like Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh regions?