Part II: Statehood for J&K: 6 years on and waiting
Jammu and Kashmir has not received any good news about restoration of statehood since December 2023 when the Supreme Court in its Article 370 judgement directed the central government to hold elections to the UT assembly within one year and ‘restore full statehood at the earliest’. While elections were held and an elected government put in place in the UT, restoration of statehood is being held back. Whenever asked, the central government authorities say that restoration will come at an appropriate time. No one knows what does ‘appropriate time’ mean for the central government.
Supreme Court’s comment that ‘Pahalgam cannot be overlooked’, made while hearing the petition of Zahoor Ahmed Bhat and Khurshid Ahmed Malik for restoration of statehood, has appeared to many in J&K as unrelated because under the J&K Reorganization Act, 2019, the subjects of public order and security are not under the control of the elected government and therefore Pahalgam terrorist attack cannot be attributed to its incompetence or inefficiency to deny it the added responsibility of statehood. Bigger criticism is coming from those who are asking whether restoration of statehood should be left at the mercy terrorists because then they would always strike to sabotage any move to restore statehood. Be that as it may, this comment of the Supreme Court can also not be ignored as the intention may have been to question whether a future state government in Jammu and Kashmir will be able to control the security situation in the face of existing terrorist threat as demonstrated by Pahalgam attack and what if the security situation deteriorates after restoration of statehood? Let us therefore examine this issue in greater detail.
Will restoration of statehood lead to deterioration of the security situation in Jammu and Kashmir ?
As someone who has been a member of the unified headquarters (UHQ) for over seven years as Divisional Commissioner of Kashmir, Principal Secretary of the Home Department and Principal Secretary to CM during late nineties 1998-2001, then again 2003-05 and finally 2008-10, I would say that there is no such danger because it was during the political governments after 1996 that security forces started getting more actionable intelligence and security situation began to improve perceptibly after 2002. At no point of time during these years, was the morale of security forces down because of the political arrangement in the state or because CM was the head of UHQ. The fact of the matter is that as head of UHQ, CMs never interfered in the work or operations of the security forces. It will therefore be a mistake to assume that statehood and the political arrangement will encourage terrorists to disturb the security situation or even encourage secessionist activities. However, if statehood is followed by attempts from across the border to disturb the security situation, the security forces are unlikely to feel constrained by the political government because nothing of the sort has ever happened in the past due to robust institutional arrangements in place.
In his article on statehood in Greater Kashmir on 22nd August, Sh. B. L. Saraf, retired Principal District and Sessions Judge and now a respected columnist wrote, “The elected government must be trusted to handle the situation. The elected governments in the past have proved their capability and bonafides to contain the menace of militancy to a large extent. There is a need for reiteration of trust. Early restoration of statehood will be such a reiteration.”
Statehood will substantially improve governance in J&K
There is a general impression in J&K that the elected UT government is not the real power centre and that levers of power lie elsewhere. This impression may not have been there to the extent it is, had the elected government asserted more which they could have within their existing powers and mandate. But to be fair to them, their real problem is that the J&K Reorganization Act, 2019 has not given them the powers over public order, security and J&K police, All India Services (AIS), that is IAS, IPS and IFoS cadres and the Anti-Corruption Bureau. Lack of powers over AIS cadres has resulted in a situation of responsibility without authority for the elected council of ministers. Division of powers between the LG and the elected government under the Reorganization Act, 2019 has come to be regarded as diarchy after the elected government took office in October, 2024 and this is not helping matters. The expectation that installation of the elected government would give the people of J&K a sense of participation in governance and remove alienation has not happened. Common people are maintaining a distance from the elected representatives and ministers because of their half control over administration, particularly the AIS cadres and lack of approved business rules which would have demarcated clearly the powers of council of ministers and the LG to allow smoother running of the administration. It is therefore necessary to restore statehood to achieve the dual objectives of bridging the gap between the people and the elected government and removal of the situation of administrative diarchy.
Alienation of people in Jammu and Kashmir, an expression often used in the context of Kashmir ever since eruption of militancy, will also reduce if statehood is restored. In the absence of statehood for prolonged periods and with increasing alienation, secessionism and subterranean anti-national activity may get an opportunity to thrive which unintentionally, will be the most undesirable outcome in a situation of drift.
Statehood will also help to reduce the political fragmentation in Jammu and Kashmir
J&K witnessed political fragmentation post constitutional changes in August 2019. New political groups spawned with each group hoping to be arbiters of power with the help of the ruling party at the centre. However, that required good performance in the elections which eluded all these new groups. Voters of Jammu and Kashmir gave a resounding mandate to the oldest party which to them appeared least likely to align with political forces responsible for the August, 2019 constitutional changes. This has resulted in absence of credible political opposition in Kashmir and also in Jammu division where the ruling party at the centre won majority of seats.
Restoration of statehood is expected to lead to participation of more people in political activities at the grassroots level and consequently a realignment of political forces in both Jammu and Kashmir divisions leading to creation of credible opposition in both divisions which in turn will lead to greater accountability from the elected government and administration.
Need for serious contestation in the Supreme Court
With the supreme court comment on Pahalgam incident linking it with the demand for statehood became public, there was outrage in Jammu and Kashmir with some political leaders asking questions from the elected government about how the present petitions landed in the Supreme Court and who the petitioners were and so on. Simultaneously, questions were asked as to why the party in power or the elected government in J&K with all their resources and wherewithal have not approached the Supreme Court and instead haves left it to individual citizens to do so?
Writing in the Indian Express on 24th August, 2025, P. Chidambaram has called non-restoration of statehood as a ‘breach of promise’. Regarding NC party’s hesitation to be in the forefront of the demand for statehood, Chidambaram writes, ‘Presumably, for tactical reasons the NC was not vocal about restoration of statehood. The absence of a strident demand for restoration of statehood led the central government to believe that statehood was not a priority for the people of J&K.’
Supreme Court is likely to hear the petition for statehood again on 10th October, 2025. Notwithstanding the prescient hopelessness, let us still hold on to the hope that this time the central government will agree in the court to restore statehood in full to uphold the federal spirit of the constitution and give the people of Jammu and Kashmir something Which has been promised to them on the floor of the parliament by the Prime Minister and the Home Minister and which is due to them under the constitution of India.
Khurshid Ahmed Ganai is a retired IAS officer of the erstwhile J&K cadre and a former Advisor to Governor, J&K.
