District Good Governance Index of J&K released by Amit Shah just an exercise in optics, say analysts

In Kashmir, where most people don’t have much of a connect with governance, Union Home Minister Amit Shah's District Good Governance Index of Jammu and Kashmir has been viewed as a farce.

On Saturday afternoon, the Home Minister unveiled the District Good Governance Index (DGGI) of Jammu and Kashmir via Video Conferencing.

The exercise, which is first of its kind for any Union Territory, is being seen as politically motivated to legitimize the nullifying of special status of Jammu and Kashmir and giving the impression that the bureaucratic style of government is superior to a representative government.

Although Amit Shah reiterated that elections would be held soon and statehood would be restored as soon as the ‘situation improves’, the people in the Valley took the statement with a pinch of salt.

"This has been going on since 2019. On the one hand, this government sings the praises of normalcy, while on the other, it waits for things to improve," remarked Javed Ahmad, a resident of Srinagar.

Since August 5, 2019, when Modi-led BJP government withdrew the special status of Jammu and Kashmir and split the region into two Union Territories, the government has been pulling out all stops to make the region perceived in good light.

"From embarking on advertising blitz to arranging ‘guided tours’ for cherry picked foreign envoys to this Index, everything has been done to legitimize the abrogation of Article 370," says a political observer, who declined to be quoted.

In November 2019, the government rolled out the second phase of public outreach program Back to Village (B2V2) with the aim of taking governance to the doorsteps of rural populace.

As part of the program, officials spent two days in the villages and noted the grievances of people. However, according to most people, their issues largely went unresolved.

"Governance is a process. It is not a one-time exercise which could be carried out overnight. There must be proper follow ups and that is not possible in the absence of public representatives," said the observer.

In the absence of a popular government, people continue to suffer on multiple counts as there is not much access to public offices.

“One of the principal fundamentals of good governance is participation and representation, a right which continues to be denied to the people of J&K,” tweeted CPI (M) leader M.Y Tarigami.

He said that releasing such indexes was only intended for optics.

In October 2020, the Central government made amendments to Jammu & Kashmir Panchayati Raj Act-1989 and established 240 District Development Councils (DDC), spread equally across all 20 territorial districts of Jammu and Kashmir with the avowed aim of empowering people at the grass roots level.

In the same year, elections for DDC constituencies were held before the onset of winters and the polls were projected as a mammoth democratic exercise.

However, after more than a year, the duly elected members in many areas find themselves effectively powerless.

In March 2021, DDC members from different political parties including BJP staged a protest, accusing the government of rendering them powerless.

During the Home Minister’s three-day visit to Jammu and Kashmir in October last year, a delegation of DDC members called on him at Raj Bhavan in Srinagar and tried to bring up the issues of their powers and remuneration with him.

A member, who was part of the delegation, said that Amit Shah was forthright in telling them to resign if they were not comfortable working in the current framework.

In some areas of the Valley, meetings of the DDC members have never even been convened since their elections. They have little or no say in formulating developmental plans for their respective districts.

"The district administration is supposed to convene the meetings of DDC members quarterly. In my district, there has not been a single such meeting," said Raja Waheed, a young DDC member from Shopian.

The October 2020 amendments provided for the formation of standing committees on five subjects -- finance, development, public works, health and education and welfare. According to Raja, such committees, however, are yet to be formed in his district.

While the government has sung praises for the DGGI, the unemployment graph in the region has shot up in recent years. Of late, figures furnished by the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE) pegged the unemployment rate at 21.6 percent in the region, the highest in the country.

Tariq Ahmad, a miffed unemployed youth, said that it was better to issue the ‘underdevelopment index’.

Amt Shah claimed that the security situation has improved in the Valley. Official statistics suggest that 189 militants and 44 security personnel were killed in the region. The number of civilians killed last year went up to 39 from 32 in 2020.

“It is not all about the numbers game. It is about how fragile the security situation in the region is,” said the political observer, adding that sometimes a single militant attack is enough to shatter hard-earned peace.

In October 2021, the security situation in the Valley went further downhill after militants unleashed a string of attacks on non-natives and members of minority community. The attacks all but triggered a fresh migration of minorities. Many of such attacks took place in Srinagar city, which was relatively peaceful over the past few years.

Sanjay Tickoo, who heads the Kashmiri Pandit Sangharsh Samiti (KPSS) said that good governance is related to the security of people as well.

"How could this government claim good governance amid a deteriorating security situation?" said Tickoo.

Tickoo said that the safety and security were not the issues for minorities only, but also for the majority community in the region.

According to Tickoo, there is a political vacuum in the Valley and the government is non-responsive to people.

"I wrote many times to the office of LG and Chief Secretary regarding various issues, but they were non-responsive," he said, adding that this exposed the good governance rhetoric of the local administration and the Centre.