Past governments eroded Article 370: Former J&K interlocutor Radha Kumar

Argument that Article 370 is the problem is completely wrong, says Kumar

Radha Kumar was one of the three interlocutors appointed by the United Progressive Alliance-2 government in 2010 to interact with various sections of Kashmiri society and prepare a report incorporating those views. In an interview to Sai Manish, Kumar expresses anguish on the abrogation of Article 370 and the manner in which the Modi government executed a far reaching Constitutional change without the consent of the very people whose lives it was supposed to affect the most. Edited excerpts:

As an interlocutor, one of the options you gave was to abrogate Article 370. Are you satisfied with the way it has been achieved? 

I am ashamed of this Parliament. For such a far reaching Constitutional change, there wasn’t even a proper debate. No Parliamentarian barring a few raised substantive Constitutional and legal issues in either of the houses. It is shameful that a legislative body went about it in the way it did. I haven’t been more depressed about anything more than this in my life. The President’s order was bad in law.

How on earth can you replace a legislative assembly of elected representatives with the governor? The governor doesn’t represent the people of the state but the government of India. Article 370 clearly states that any move to abrogate it must be done on recommendation of the Constituent Assembly. Wasn’t it fine to interpret constituent assembly as the legislative assembly to ensure that people’s voices are heard while amending the Constitution? The way in which this was pushed crushed federalism in India. The President of India has to protect the Constitution. Instead he has blatantly violated it. 

Was the time ripe for the abrogation of Article 370? 

We had said in our report that Article 370 was a temporary provision. It would be fair to say that the Congress and other governments in the past eroded Article 370. We have also seen that at every point it has been eroded, there has been more turmoil and alienation among people in Kashmir. So the argument that Article 370 is the problem is completely wrong. The problem all along has been the blatant undermining and erosion of it. The founding fathers of the Constitution put it as a transient provision in the hope that one day Kashmir will be just like any other state in India. But for Kashmir to be like any other state was also to be determined by the will of its people. However, the government has decided to go about this in a very specious manner. The reliability and trustworthiness of the Indian state has been lost. 

Who benefitted the most from Article 370 all these years?

Nobody. It was barely followed. Overtime, various elements like the Supreme Court’s jurisdiction and the Election Commission of India’s powers were extended to Kashmir. These were not originally envisaged in Article 370. There is no merit in the argument that Article 370 benefitted only two or three families in Kashmir. What has Article 370 got to do with two political families ruling the state over all these years? Have all the corrupt and venal politicians benefitted from the Constitution of India? It is a ridiculous argument to make. 

What repercussions do you see  in the coming days and the future? 

From whatever little information is coming through from the valley, I believe that Kashmiris are in a state of shock and despair. It will lead to increased rage, alienation and very likely more people taking to the gun in Kashmir. One thing I am certain of is that Pakistan will try to multiply infiltration and try to flood the valley with guns. Experience over the last 70 years shows that whenever Pakistan is given the opportunity to foment armed violence in Kashmir, it never lets go off it. These series of far reaching Constitutional changes have not just been done without consultation; it has been executed by locking up the people of Kashmir whose voices should have been heard in this process. 

How different are younger generation of Kashmiris in their attitude towards India than the middle aged and elder ones? 

What I saw in my interactions across age groups in Kashmir was that the elder generation – like the leaders who headed the Hurriyat -- were much more eager to negotiate things. They wanted solutions and their attitude had been suitably modified to take into account Indian concerns to arrive at solution for Kashmir. 

During the 1990s there was a burning passionate belief among many of the rebels in democracy. They in many ways were fighting for democracy. I do not see this in the current generation of young Kashmiris. Many of them believed that democracy was a complete sham. They thought they would fight either for religion or their fight would be fuelled by plain hatred towards the central government’s policies. The younger generation had no clear idea of what they wanted; but clearly knew what they did not want. They had no idea of their future. When you are born into blood and war, how can you envisage a rosy future for yourself. The rebels of 1990s had seen a better world before the turmoil began. The rebels of 2010 had seen nothing in their lives except conflict. Now you have demoted Kashmir to a Union Territory. Only the will of the union government will run large in Kashmir from now. You have told them that governance will be done through panchayats. This is what the British did. Why is the government repeating a ccolonial pattern in a state of India?

There are concerns of a demographic change that will alter the Muslim character of Kashmir? 

Kashmiris have for centuries resented outside settlers and have been protective of their land. Their history has been of one conquest after another. Communal elements in the valley and people like Syed Ali Shah Geelani have forever been taking about how the Indian government wants to change the valley demographically. This is absolute nonsense. There has been no substantive demographic change in the valley as far as reduction in the Muslim population is concerned. If there have been any changes in religious composition, it has been restricted to the Jammu region. We have seen such arguments being raised across India. Communal bigots have said that Muslims have more children than Hindus so they would change India’s Hindu majority character. But over these many years the higher birth rate among Muslims hasn’t made a significant difference. Hindus still form an overwhelming majority of India. 

But concerns of Muslim population being diluted in Kashmir also stems from the freedom for anyone in India to now buy land in the valley.

Yes. When left to run its normal course, demographic changes happen very slowly. Now the argument being made is that people from all over India will now flood Kashmir to buy land and property. There are no land laws in Jammu & Kashmir to allow for that. So now the governor will make those laws by an executive fiat. I don’t think this will result in significant reduction in number of Muslims. But it will lead to changes in other significant ways. Who will buy land or property in Kashmir? Probably people who want summer houses. Why would people from the rest of India want to go and settle in Kashmir when the state is engulfed in violence and uncertainty. It is obvious that industry and businesses won’t go there. So who is left? Maybe some ideologically motivated people from the Rashtriya Swyamasevak Sangh (RSS) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) will go and settle there.

But this Israeli type settler approach won’t lead to millions of people moving into the valley. If we exclude the settler possibility, then the only plausible investment option will be Indians buying summer houses from the locals. With them not being able to live there, it would result in a large number of empty properties across Kashmir. When this happens, the sense of community that prevails in Kashmir will be lost. All of us living in cities live as disparate entities – we live in our own colonies not knowing our neighbours. When this summer house boom happens, the local community will become weaker and be transformed to a service community.