TRUE TEST
| Date :07-Aug-2019 |
THE true test of how the Central Government will handle the new Kashmir challenge will begin now. Handling the complexity and enormity of the challenge will actually be a baptism by fire for Prime Minister Mr. Narendra Modi, Union Home Minister Mr. Amit Shah and the core group at the Centre. However, given the advance preparedness of the Centre before making the crucial move to scrap Article 370 of the Constitution to withdraw Special Status to Jammu and Kashmir and splitting the State into two separate Union Territories, it is obvious that every possible eventuality that may dare the Government has been imagined beforehand. Going by that yardstick, it can be said safely that the Government will be able to tide over the constitutional, legal and administrative issues with a fair degree of ease.
The tougher test, however, will be in the political theatre -- which can also be described as a theatre of the absurd, in the context of Kashmir. The Government may have to exercise utmost caution and restraint while dealing with a possible eruption of drummed up political opposition to the idea in the streets. However, the Government appears all set to tackle that challenge as well. It is very satisfying that the Centre is handling the issue very efficiently, thanks to the deft manner in which it has defined various dimensions of the complex situation.
Even though it is conscious of the extraordinary interest Pakistan has always shown in Kashmir, the Centre has not given much importance to the possible pressure-tactics the neighbours may use to corner India. It has treated Kashmir as India’s internal issue and has taken steps accordingly, thus eliminating from contention any foreign intrusion into the current conditions. This indicates an amazing maturity on the part of the Centre in handling the challenge that was made to appear more complex than it actually was by vested interests in the past seventy-plus years.
There is no point in denying the complexity of the situation. Yet, there is no wisdom as well in portraying the situation as something more complex than it actually is. Constitutionally, the Centre has sorted out the issue by using efficiently the temporariness of the Special Status (as was assured when it was first imposed sixty-plus years ago) to erase the expected legal hurdles. Politically, it has tided over the parliamentary hurdles to the move quite comfortably. Administratively, it has kept entire machinery on high alert in Kashmir, correspondingly with the Armed Forces on Red Alert. And to make matters safer, it has taken into custody a few Kashmiri politicians who had demonstrated fissiparous and anti-national streaks and tendencies. Having fortified its position in such a comprehensive manner, the Centre now seems set to bring into effect the split of the State into two Union Territories.
The new constitutional status will afford the Centre greater effectiveness while dealing with all possible obstacles politically-driven elements may want to put on the path to a complete integration of Kashmir with national mainstream. With a direct control of things sans the constitutional bar of Special Status, the Centre will be able to deal with security issues also with aplomb. A few politically-motivated forces may still try to disturb the new discourse the Government has sought to bring into contention. However, those elements eventually will be brushed aside on multiple counts: One, numerically, those forces will be defeated in legislative houses; two, emotionally those forces will be isolated as the whole country has endorsed the Kashmir move; three, constitutionally and legally, those forces have no ground to stand on and oppose the move since all those dimensions have been cared for well in advance. Stage, thus, is fully set to make the Kashmir move work well!