[ National Interest ] India Proves Critics Wrong on Kashmir
Thursday marks the second anniversary since India’s President Ram Nath Kovind revoked Kashmir’s special status under Article 370 of India’s constitution. In effect, the move ended Kashmir’s autonomy and turned Kashmir into a union territory equal in status to Delhi or the Andaman and Nicobar Islands.
Diplomats may have condemned the change to the status quo but, as legal specialist Kelly Buchanan noted for the nonpartisan Library of Congress noted, India’s Constitution categorized Articles 370 and 371 as “Temporary, Transitional and Special Provisions,” which means they never meant to be permanent.
Technically speaking, the Indian government’s actions were legal. While the change in status meant the application of the Indian constitution and 890 Central laws in Jammu Kashmir, many of these brought progressive change, including the Scheduled Caste and the Scheduled Tribes Act that forbade targeting and atrocities against lower castes; the Whistleblowers Protection Act, and the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act. Women in Jammu and Kashmir get full rights that Jammu and Kashmiri law had previously denied them.
Incidents of terrorism within Jammu and Kashmir dropped by more than half from 455 to 211 in the 402 days before versus the same period after the abrogation of Article 370. As importantly, there was a 40 percent decline in the involvement of Kashmiri youth in terror attacks. The withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan—and with the U.S. Special Envoy’s empowerment of the Taliban—make the Indian decision to change Kashmir’s status prescient given the near-certainty that Afghanistan will soon revert to strategic depth for myriad anti-Western and anti-Indian terrorist groups.
In October 2019, the Blocks (loosely rural counties) held their first-ever elections in which locals chose 310 block development council chairpersons from 1,092 candidates. The polls were popular with a 98 percent turnout, perhaps because they were so local, although some critics poured cold water on the numbers. Even if such criticism is legitimate, the accomplishment is real.
It has begun work to link Jammu and Kashmir to the national rail network and has inaugurated seventeen power projects that should generate 3500 megawatts of electricity for the territory within four years, equivalent to the Hoover Dam. In March 2021, Indian Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced a $14.6 billion budget for the territory, 37 percent of which the government earmarked for development and infrastructure down to the District and Block Council level.
The Jammu and Kashmir government also signed a memorandum of understanding with the National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation of India to help move regional produce across India and internationally. This could increase farmers’ take-home pay three-fold.