President’s rule had been imposed in J&K on 31st October 2019, and has now been revoked, with Omar Abdullah set to take oath as Chief Minister of the state on Wednesday next.
I spoke a short while back on WhatsApp with a Kashmiri Muslim friend who lives in Kashmir. I said to him “ You Kashmiris must be happy now that President’s rule has been revoked, and a democratically elected government is coming to power “.
He was silent for a short while, and then said “ Do you really want to know how we feel ? “.
I said “ Of course “
He then said “ Ever since President’s rule was imposed there was no corruption in J&K. Our children could go to school and come home safely. The tourism industry revived. There were no incidents of stone pelting etc. We were mostly happy. Now all this may change.
The National Conference leaders, who ruled the state for decades, were highly corrupt, and looted J&K, siphoning off huge amounts of money which they sent abroad.
Now with Omar Abdullah’s government taking over power, all the nightmares of the past may revive. The new MLAs, like a gang of vultures, are bound to start corruption, since they spent crores of rupees each in the state elections, and will naturally seek to recover their investment with interest. They would also want a huge amount of money for use in the next elections, and to buy imported cars, for building palatial houses, and for a variety of other purposes. In other words, looting of the state will shortly start, with Omar Abdullah turning a Nelson’s eye to all this.
We had law and order and peace in J&K after President’ rule was imposed in 2019.
Now we shudder to think of what is coming.
As for my own view, I cannot contradict my friend, since he lives in Kashmir, whereas, though being a Kashmiri myself, I live in Noida, near Delhi. Hence, being on ground zero, he is in a far better position than me to comment on the issue.
However, I agree with him that corruption will now increase exponentially in J&K, since politicians in J&K, particularly of the National Conference, which ruled the state for decades, have had a reputation of being notoriously corrupt since the time of Sheikh Abdullah, who sowed the seeds of corruption in the state since he became the Chief Minister ( earlier known as Prime Minister ).
The National Conference MLAs, who hold most of the seats in the state legislature, will no doubt have already started working out schemes and devices to make money.
I have several times said that India is not fit for democracy.
The coming days in J&K will bear out the truth of my averment
