Letting People Down
The mainstream political parties failing people, and the political system coming crashing down; is that we finally observed in the face of floods! If the two-tier governance system, working at cross-purposes, failed to deliver, the opposition parties gave even a more dismal account of themselves.
Well, this is how the scenario emerged in Jammu and Kashmir as it faced the fury of rains, cloudbursts and the resultant floods. The entire system went haywire with the infrastructure-roads, bridges and houses – crumbling; resulting in long disruptions in water and power supply, snapping of rail, road and air links for over a fortnight. The system has still to be fully restored with most of the roads including the Jammu and Kashmir national highway still to become fully operational.
On top of that, and perhaps for the first time in the recent past, the Vaishno Devi pilgrimage remained suspended for 20 days only to be partially resumed from an alternate route as the pathway has come under a hail of landslides resulting due to unplanned and unscientific construction activities in the pious Trikuta hills. The pilgrimage was closed by the authorities concerned after a huge landslide left 32 dead and scores of pilgrims injured with no less than the Lt Governor Mr Manoj Sinha claiming that the yatra had already been stopped due to weather conditions; but failed to pin-point how such a huge number of pilgrims found their way up the mountain and got trapped in the landslides.
Customarily, an immediate official enquiry was ordered, headed by a senior bureaucrat, which was supposed to submit report within two weeks. So far nothing has been heard about it. Doubts are already arising that it might meet the same fate as the enquiry committee report related to January 1, 2022 stampede in which 12 pilgrims died and many injured. The report despite having been submitted within the stipulated time frame is still to see the light of day after three years.
This is only the reflection of how the system is working in Jammu and Kashmir, post dilution of Article 370; with a promise of ushering the resultant Union Territory into a new era of efficient governance and the system working in close proximity with the people. The latest weather-related catastrophe, more man made than natural, has blown the lid off all such claims. More so, it has totally exposed the political system, ruling as well as the opposition, with no one to hear people’s cries. A more worrying aspect in the functioning of the democratic system was that the people willingly took it all lying down.
The ruling system, elected National Conference (NC) government and the Lt Governor’s administration (read Centre as LG is the Centre’s point-person) that has accumulated powers under the current constitutional scheme of things, instead of acting in coordination preferred to work on cross-purposes. Apart from NC, the other ruling party the BJP- by dint of LG being the Centre’s representative and being directly controlled by the Home Ministry of Narendra Modi government - with majority of MLAs and two MPs from Jammu region, their stronghold and a well-oiled party set-up in the Kashmir Valley, failed to rise to the occasion.
Never ever the collective voice of the BJP MLAs was heard all this while raising concern about people’s miseries, crumbled infrastructure and disruption of essential services for a prolonged period in Jammu. Although Home Minister, Mr Amit Shah embarked on a quick visit of the UT, it failed to galvanise the system on ground.
Many asked a question, particularly in Jammu; if the BJP legislators and MPs could have collectively appealed to their high command in Delhi drawing attention towards crisis in J&K. Could they have dashed to the national capital in a deputation to raise people’s concerns? None of this happened, not even for optics. Perhaps they feared a reprisal from their high command. This is the political culture we are currently living with in Jammu and Kashmir.
The only follow up, rather than providing resources and activating the local governance system, by the central dispensation was dispatching scores of Union Ministers, at the expense of public money, to tour affected areas and listen to the people’s grievances. Expectedly, it had no salutary effect in lessening people’s sufferings.
On the other hand, chief minister Mr Omar Abdullah, rather than working out a coordinated approach to work in tandem with the Lt Governor, spent his time expressing grouse regarding lack of power and resources to ameliorate sufferings of the people. He was justified to a great extent but not entirely. In a clever move the BJP targeted his government in order to protect the Lt Governor who in the current scheme of things is all powerful with NC watching quietly from the fence.
Where does the opposition (read Congress, the main opposition party) stand in the midst of this crisis? Instead of acting as a watchdog to expose both the Abdullah government, and the LG administration, Congress remained silent, ridden with factionalism. There was no coordinated effort at the level of the PCC president Mr Tariq Hamid Karra to unite the party in this hour of crisis; not only to reach out to people but also hit the roads espousing their cause and exposing the ruling set-up.
The faction-ridden Congress, with the high command looking the other way despite their attention having been drawn to the shoddy state of affairs, let another opportunity go waste and recover the lost ground.
Mr Karra and other leaders, with a few exceptions, embarked on solo tours of the effected areas as part of the outreach programme, primarily for photo-ops. No planning went into filling the void created by the BJP legislators through providing them immediate relief material.
Yes, the nature had struck with full force, taking the governments unaware. But the impact of the nature’s fury increased many folds due to misgovernance, lack of coordination among different tiers of government. Above all the phenomena of development at the cost of destruction resulting in reckless developmental activities particularly in the hilly terrains, total lack of accountability and poor quality of material used in the infrastructural development, led to total destruction, rendering the system paralyzed.
As the system crumbled, the political mainstream looked the other way and failed to act. It left people high and dry with no listening post to enlist their grievances.
