Podcast | Why Is Jammu and Kashmir Facing a Political Crisis?

Why was the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly dissolved? Has it happened before? What next for the state of J&K?

(Photo: The Quint)

Why was the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly dissolved? Has it happened in the past? And what happens next to the state?

I’m Vishnu Gopinath and we’ll answer these questions on this edition of the big story podcast.

Jammu and Kashmir was plunged into a political crisis on Wednesday, 21 November, after governor Satya Pal Malik dissolved the state’s Assembly. But why did Governor Malik dissolve the assembly after over five months of governor’s rule?

Well, it might have had a little to do with the fact that the PDP and the National Conference, the two main parties in the Valley, decided to stake a claim to form the government in an alliance with the Congress party.

The alliance said that the parties would be represented by PDP leader Altaf Bukhari as the candidate for chief minister.

Second, shortly after this announcement, People’s Conference leader Sajjad Lone also wrote to Malik saying that he wanted to stake claim to form the government, with the support of the BJP.

And it was after this that Satya Pal Malik announced the sudden dissolution of the Assembly.

That’s right. Malik said that he’d heard about horse-trading taking place and that MLAs were reportedly being threatened, so he had no other option but to dissolve the Assembly.

Obviously, the timing of Malik’s announcement coinciding with Mufti staking her claim was hard to overlook, so Governor Malik said that he didn’t receive the fax of Mufti’s letter staking claim, because quote unquote, “no one was near the fax machine because it was eid.”

What was the reaction to this?

Governor Malik has a unique fax machine. It didn’t receive Mehbooba Mufti’s letter staking claim to form the J&K government but it sent out the fax about the dissolution of the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly. It’s a one-way fax machine, like many roads in India.

Omar Abdullah, Leader, National Conference 

Omar Abdullah also went on to challenge Governor Satya Pal Malik to prove his claims of horse-trading and provide details of the same.

Jammu and Kashmir’s Troubled Political Past

Now remember, Jammu and Kashmir’s previous BJP-PDP alliance government came to an end in June after a near four-year run.

In this time, the state witnessed increased militarisation by the army and several incidents of unrest. The situation in this period was also more tense because of the death of Hizbul Mujahideen leader Burhan Wani in a co-ordinated encounter by the Jammu and Kashmir Police and the Rashtriya Rifles.

The troubled four-year relationship finally ended in June this year, resulting in governor’s rule being imposed.

But back to the topic of the current political crisis. What next for the state of Jammu and Kashmir?

The elections were held exactly four years ago, in 2014, and the turbulence around then over the BJP-PDP coalition has led to a lot of heartburn and a lot of disillusionment not only with the parties but also the democratic process. This is a situation that people in Delhi must take very seriously. That the radicalisation of young people in Kashmir includes the rejection of democracy. That democracy itself is some kind of western conspiracy, that it’s anti-islamic and is not something we should have in a country going through the sort of situation that Kashmir and its environs are.

David Devadas, Senior Journalist

What next for the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly? And who will form the next government? Stay tuned and find out as we keep tracking the developments on the Big Story.