23 January 2013, 02:17 PM IST
J&K chief minister Omar Abdullah patted himself on the back for having "transformed'' the state as he completed his fourth-year in office earlier this month. A bulk of the claim's intended audience is most likely to have missed it on TV as large parts of the state had gone without power for days while the mercury well below the freezing point. In fact, one of the unscheduled power cuts killed two infants at a north Kashmir hospital as their incubator could not function for the want of backup days before the CM's claim. Earlier, 500 babies died at Srinagar's lone paediatric hospital for reasons ranging from lack of sanitation, trained staff and negligence last year.
Scheduled power cuts for three evening and two nights weekly along with an unprecedented shortage of LPG gas has made the winter particularly harsh in the state that ironically has the greatest hydro-power generation potential. A commentator likened long queues outside gas agencies waiting for Omar's promised LPG cylinder "home-delivery" to images "from wartime Europe of those waiting for a loaf of bread or a litre of kerosene''. It is understandable that like most Omar promises, there was no follow up on the one on the ``home delivery''. In any case the Valley's administration remains crippled for six winter months as the capital shifts to the warmer plains of Jammu. The exercise is aptly called "Durbar Move'', a tradition that J&K's erstwhile monarch had started over a century back. Ministers mostly stay away along with other top officials in Jammu while people struggle even with basic necessities like water and power.
The CM had promised to primarily address these issues along with more pressing unemployment problem as he was voted to office after an unprecedented 68% voter turnout in 2008. The number of jobless people has since mounted to 0.6 million.
At least five ministers face corruption charges making it difficult to stem the rot from the top, more importantly in the state with a dubious distinction of being the second-most corrupt in the country. Last month, the state accountability bureau began a rare probe on how a corruption case dating back to 1980s was closed against minister Ghulam Hassan Mir. The government had even denied permission for Mir's prosecution. His cabinet colleague Taj Mohideen, also facing charges of misusing his position and causing losses to the exchequer, compared ministers with prostitutes after a legislator accused him of grabbing forest land. Another minister Peerzada Mohammad Sayeed was indicted for forcing officials to help write his step son's examination papers. After much outrage, he was divested of his education portfolio but retained his berth in the cabinet. Sayeed, also accused of misappropriation of funds, was forced to resign from the earlier government too after a legislator accused him of asking for bribe. Finance minister Abdul Rahim Rather is accused of nepotism for awarding a contract to his son. Junior minister Manohar Lal Sharma faces charges of embezzlement of crores while 50 bureaucrats too face graft charges.
The CM may have been exonerated from his involvement in his party worker Haji Yusuf's death, a day after he was summoned and allegedly beaten at his residence in September 2011 for taking money from two other functionaries for a ministerial and a legislative council seat. But questions regarding sale of berths remain unanswered. Yusuf's family maintains that he was tortured at the CM's residence.
On January 15, Ghulam Ahmad Mir was inducted into the state cabinet even as a PIL against his acquittal in the 2006 sex scandal remains pending. He was acquitted allegedly after witnesses were pressurized and forced to turn hostile in the case that had a huge collective physiological impact on the state's people and triggered the first among the series of street protests.
But the CM has the reason to be pleased for having delivered two "peaceful summers" and record tourist arrivals as he is known to be more concerned about how his performance is judged in New Delhi, where desolation is often mistaken for peace. The issues that triggered protests from 2008 to 2010 have not melted away. Staged "encounters" happened in 2011 and the following year. But protests did not erupt as the state unleashed its coercive arms with vengeance. Hundreds of youth have been tortured after being booked under the Public Safety Act, which Amnesty International described as a lawless law allowing imprisonment of people without trial for up to two years. Juveniles were not spared either as many of them were thrown in jails full of hardcore criminals.
A few days earlier, a video clip showing cops stripping naked and beating youth at a police station went viral in the latest such videos. Instead of punishing the cops in question, authorities filed a case against those who had uploaded the video under sections that could lead to their imprisonment for three years.
Many youth were thrown in the gaol under the PSA for social networking postings long before two Palgarh girls' arrest for posting and `linking' a Facebook post on Shiv Sena leader Bal Thackeray's funeral outraged the country.
The CM has failed to rid his people of these draconian laws that have perpetuated such dehumanisation. He failed to deliver on his promise to have the Armed Forces Special Powers Act "revoked from some parts of the state" in a few days in 2011. No action has been taken against those responsible for firings on demonstrators a year earlier that killed over 110 people including kids and women.
As these questions stare the ruling party in the face, it resorts to the time-tested formula of flogging a dead horse by reminding New Delhi of its plebiscite promise.
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