These constitutional provisions had given India's only Muslim-majority region a semi-autonomous status for the past 70 years and had protected the region from demographic changes by reserving the locals' right to own land and vote. On August 5, 2019, these rights were revoked without consultation with local politicians or recommendations from the assembly, and the state was dissolved into two centrally-administered territories.
A five-member constitution bench of the Supreme Court of India is currently hearing the petitions.
People in non-Muslim regions – Jammu and Ladakh –are dissatisfied with the government and its policies on land and the environment. They feel that outsiders are seizing their resources and trying to change their culture
A 19-member informal group of concerned citizens, Forum for Human Rights in Jammu and Kashmir, released the fourth report on the status of Jammu and Kashmir after the abolition of Article 370 in New Delhi this week. The forum includes five retired senior judges, four former top officials, including foreign and home secretaries, and senior military officers. The report, titled Five Years Without an Elected Administration: Human Rights in Jammu and Kashmir, August 2022 – July 2023, debunks Modi's claims on development as well as security.
READ MORE: PM Shehbaz Expresses Openness To Work With India For Regional Development
Resentment in Kashmir – and Jammu and Ladakh too
Significantly, authors of the report who visited the state noted that the Muslim-dominated Kashmir valley remains in constant grip of fear and anxiety. Also, they noticed that people in non-Muslim regions – Jammu and Ladakh –are dissatisfied with the government and its policies on land and the environment. They feel that outsiders are seizing their resources and trying to change their culture.
"People of the Kashmir valley feel that the National Conference (NC) and the People's Democratic Party (PDP) will get a comprehensive mandate in the valley if elections are held. In the Jammu region, the opposition parties will do better than in 2014, with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) witnessing a reduction in their numbers," says Air Vice Marshal (Retd) Kapil Kak, a member of the forum.
READ MORE: India’s Pakistan Obsession And The Rise Of ISIS In South Asia
In the absence of an elected government and an inaccessible bureaucracy, the people are left to fend for themselves.
Kashmiris deprived of 40 constitutional rights
In the report, the forum lists 40 constitutional rights people of the former state have been deprived of in the past. They include the right to live in peace, freedom of expression, rights of the press, right to free and fair elections, right to protection from arbitrary arrest, illegal or preventive detention, custodial violence and injuries, right to bail and right to a fair and speedy trial.
Speaking to The Friday Times, Radha Kumar, former government interlocutor for Kashmir and coordinator of the group, says that today Kashmir has the highest percentage of prisoners languishing in jails. "The two central jails, ten districts jails and two other jails are overflowing. Almost 91 percent of inmates are convicts, more than in any other Indian state. The fact that people are put behind bars in the name of preventive detention or that no charges are filed against arrestees is a clear indication that the police have taken the law into their own hands," she adds.
Modi often talks of cooperative federalism, ignoring the fact that abolishing Jammu and Kashmir's statehood and not holding elections in the regions violates the spirit of the Indian constitution
The Union Territory has not had an elected government for more than nine years, and the bureaucracy that runs the state is neither accountable nor accessible to people. Despite the Union government's demarcation of electoral areas, the centre is yet to announce elections in the state. The manner in which the constituency boundaries have been redrawn, keeping in mind caste dynamics, has raised several questions about the intentions of the BJP and its efforts to consolidate and polarise the Hindu vote. "In Jammu, new Hindu-majority constituencies were created, such as Padder with a population of just over 50,000, while three times as many Muslim areas, such as Surankote in Poonch district, were not given a seat in parliament," the report says.
Kashmir, with 56.15 percent of the Muslim population, has been allotted 47 seats in the assembly, and Jammu, with a population share of 43.85 percent, has a seat share of 43.
Modi often talks of cooperative federalism, ignoring the fact that abolishing Jammu and Kashmir's statehood and not holding elections in the regions violates the spirit of the Indian constitution.
The threat from Village Defence Guards
The report reveals that while counter-insurgency operations in the valley have declined, issues such as granting tribal status to the Pahari community and the reintroduction of the Village Defence Committee (VDC) may lead to further instability in the valley.
While violence in the valley has declined in the face of militant attacks and counter-insurgency operations, the resurgence of the VDC in Hindu-dominated districts has created new insecurities. In 2002, when Lal Krishna Advani was Indian Home Minister, the VDC was introduced as a self-defence measure. It has now been renamed the Village Defence Guard (VDG).
India is being run on the agenda of a party that could unlawfully override constitutional safeguards for the people of Jammu and Kashmir - Mahbooba Mufti
"The idea was counter-productive even then. It died its own death a few years later. However, its reintroduction will arm the people. This may lead to inter-ethnic targeting and vindictive killings in the name of self-defence," Kak says.
The Indian government's decision to include the Pahari community, the Paddari, Gadda Braman and Koli tribes in the list of covered tribes could lead to a clash between the Paharis, Gujjars, Bakarwals and other tribes, which in turn could lead to severe communal conflicts. "The impact of these bills on elections will be felt especially in Jammu, where there is the largest number of Scheduled Castes and OBCs. It will increase mobilisation of voters by caste," the report states.
The Pahari community made a similar demand for reservations in 2010. Kumar, who was then a member of the three-member group of Interlocutors for Jammu and Kashmir appointed by the government of India and prepared the report titled A New Compact for Jammu and Kashmir, says, "Paharis are not a caste or a tribe but a linguistic community and have the status of a backward class. The sudden introduction of tribal status will only complicate the situation in the region and could be a reason for an explosion of violence in the region," she says.
READ MORE: The Reality Of India’s Growing Power
After a long wait of three and a half years, the Supreme Court of India on August 2 began hearing petitions seeking the repeal of Article 370, revoking the autonomy of Jammu and Kashmir. The government of India, in its affidavit before the court, has stated that the valley has entered an era of development, progress, security and stability. Tourism has also increased in Kashmir – but this does not erase the disenchantment of the people of Kashmir with the centre. On the contrary, there is high unemployment, local businesses have suffered due to the government's policies, and Kashmiri Pandits still do not feel safe in the region.
Peoples' Democratic Party leader Mahbooba Mufti, the last chief minister of the state, who formed a coalition government with the BJP in 2016, has accused the BJP of ruling the country according to its ideological commitments and not according to the Indian constitution. "India is being run on the agenda of a party that could unlawfully override constitutional safeguards for the people of Jammu and Kashmir. The website SC must clarify whether India must be run according to the constitution or according to a party's agenda," she says.
As the people of Kashmir look to the Supreme Court of India, Kumar notes that the continued delay in restoring normalcy in Kashmir will have a lasting impact on generations to come. "For four decades, there was a slow process of radicalisation in Kashmir. But in four years, it has reached a stage of extreme radicalisation, which is a worrying trend," she concludes.