The stand of the Union government, as revealed in the Supreme Court on Thursday, that Jammu and Kashmir’s Union territory status is “a temporary thing” and restoration of complete statehood will “take some time” but elections can be held “anytime from now” can be seen as a mere statement of the obvious with very little meaning for the people who have a right to democratic governance.
The Union government made the statement in response to a pointed demand by the Supreme Court, which has been hearing petitions against the 2019 hollowing out of Article 370 that linked the erstwhile state to the Indian Union, that it wanted “the specific time frame” as to when actual democracy will be restored. In short, the apex court, and by extension, the people of the country, have failed to elicit a “a specific time frame” on the installation of a popular government with all the powers that are due to an elected government in an Indian state.
The Solicitor General, who represented the government in court, instead, reeled out data about the ‘progress’ the Union Territory has made during President’s rule: terror-related incidents have gone down by 45.2 per cent when compared to 2018, infiltration is down by 90.2 per cent, incidents of stone pelting and hartals have come to nil. On the development front, an investment of about Rs 2,000 crore has already been done, and 32 of the 53 Pradhan Mantri Development Projects have been completed. In short, a question on restoration of democracy is met with statistics on the advantage of a benevolent dictatorship, and not a specific time frame as demanded.
India is an electoral democracy and the Constitution offers no alternative to it, except for a brief period of exigencies. Leaving it to the government of the day and its statistics is akin to putting the very idea on its head, and hence must not be allowed.
