KASHMIR SITUATION
Ramesh Vinayak on the Impact of Farooq Abdullah Government
The crowds outside the barricaded civil secretariat building in Srinagar are swelling. The crowds, the Farooq Abdullah Government feels, is an unmistakably positive sign of the changed mood in the Valley. But the fact that hardly anyone returns home with a smiling face shows how little things have really changed. Nine months since the war-weary Kashmiris elected the Government, the grievances-redressal machinery remains what it was -unresponsive and in total disarray.
When Farooq Abdullah took over in October, 1996 amidst soaring expectations, the minimum he was supposed to do in right earnest was rejuvenate and reinvigorate the grievance-redressal process at the grass-roots levels. This could have acted as a catalyst towards re-establishing the writ of the Government and creating a new mindset among the violence-weary Kashmiris. There is little evidence, however, to show any forward movement, be it on the employment front, the reconstruction of damaged infrastructure or the MLAs just lending a sympathetic ear. Farooq's report card hardly makes for promising reading. It, ion fact, speaks of a widening gap.
Far from being seen as a deft administrator, Farooq appears to be floundering, finding most of his well-meaning promises caught in the cobweb of bureaucratic delays. However, Farooq has none to blame but himself for lackadaisical responses. Take, for instance, the recruitment to government posts in a state which has more than 2 lakhs registered as unemployed. The much-vaunted scheme to fill up 26,000 vacancies by March has been a non-starter. It took more than three months to identify the posts and eight months to recast the Subordinate Services Selection Board.
Farooq did resist ministerial pressure to disband the board, but rumours of a flourishing tout system abound. Farooq call ill-afford to be oblivious to the perils of slip-ups, given that his government desperately needs to establish its credibility to wean the Kashmiris from the secessionists' spell.
Any goodwill that the Govt. could have earned is getting stuck in red tape. For example, selection lists for 400-odd teachers, interviewed during President's rule, were out in March. But the inordinate delay in police verification has scuttled the appointments for the last four months. Even 2,400 compassionate appointments for the kin of militant's victims, sanctioned three months ago, are bogged down in similar delay. Efforts at reviving the redressal machinery would have won Farooq instant points and made immediate impact. but rural Kashmir still resembles a ravaged war zone with damaged roads and gutted schools and bridges. Though the budget was passed in early April, half of the available six working months in the Valley have gone by, without any development work taking off. In Anantnag, one of the worst-affected districts, with 136 burnt school buildings and 74 destroyed bridges, the first meeting of the district development board was held on June 18. All this, despite a liberal flow of funds from the Centre, which hiked the state's plan size by 24% to an unprecedented Rs.10,000 crore Development works apart, Farooq and his 27ministers, most of whom are credited with lacklustre performance, have done precious little to make their presence felt in rural Kashmir, where the heart of the problem lies. Since the durbar shifted on May 15, Farooq has but once ventured out of Srinagar. And with development plans still in the pipeline, and the autonomy issue on the backburner, Farooq has little to crow about.
Most of the National Conference MLAs are ensconced in the safe environs of Srinagar. As a result, the political activity at the grass-roots level is non-existent. With the ministers and MLAs playing truant, the people have little option but to chase them in Srinagar. "Sorting out the people's problems at the ground level could be a political antidote to militancy", says Srinagar-based senior Congress leader Rafiq Sadiq.
Even as the Pakistan-backed militants - estimated to be around 4,000 - are on the run because of the heat mounted by security forces, the surrendered militants continue to be an unending nightmare for the Farooq regime. His strategy to dole out power crumbs to two renegade leaders - Javed Shah and Babar Badar – by appointing them as MLCs has led to others too demanding a share in the power cake.
Farooq is clearly lucky because the people seem firm about giving peace a chance. With the Hurriyat Conference unable to act as the opposition party - due to the common man's disinterest in hartals and processions the Valley, in fact, in awash with growing signs of normalcy. What Farooq has to do, is put Kashmir on the road to recovery. His government owes its existence to the popular disenchantment with violence and militancy. It's disenchantment that Farooq needs to worry about.
(Source: The India Today, 7 July, 1997)
