Srinagar: On 5 August 2019, the Bharatiya Janata Party-led Central government passed the historic Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Bill, 2019, in the Parliament, revoking the state’s special status as well as its statehood. While announcing the decision to modify Article 370, Home Minister Amit Shah had said in Rajya Sabha: “Jammu and Kashmir is the 'Mukut-Mani' (jewel in the crown) of India. Give us five years, we will make it the nation's most developed state.”
A year has already passed, and the economic condition of the state does not seem quite so good as promised. Residents of the state believe it has worsened.
Facts on the ground suggest that, instead of witnessing economic growth, the Union Territory (UT) of Jammu and Kashmir has been coping with a massive loss in revenue and rising unemployment.
Industries in trouble:
Sheikh Ashiq Ahmad, president of Kashmir Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KCCI), while talking to ETV Bharat said that Jammu and Kashmir has lost an estimated Rs 40,000 crore in the past one year due to the double impact of government-imposed clampdown and COVID-19 pandemic.
To recall, Jammu and Kashmir witnessed a lockdown and restriction on movement of people after the modification of Article 370 and 35A after August last year, which lasted for about seven months. This was immediately followed by another lockdown after the coronavirus outbreak in March 2020.
Ahmad said that this huge loss to the Kashmir economy has forced business units, both big and small, to cuts jobs, thereby raising unemployment further.
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Abrar Ahmad Khan, co-convener of Jammu and Kashmir Economic Confederation told ETV Bharat: “All the business sectors, including transporters and the tourism industry, got affected due to the 12-month lockdown. Everybody is facing great trouble due to these crippling economic conditions and because of the growing unemployment.”
Interestingly, the hospitality and tourism sector, which contributes about 15% to state GDP, had earlier welcomed the government’s move on revoking Article 370 on hopes that the sector will get benefit after the security situation stabilises in the state. However, the extended lockdown has washed away that optimism.
“Our houseboat industry has suffered a loss of Rs 200 crore during the past one year,” said Abdul Rashid, General Secretary of Houseboat Owners Association.
Private investment still poor:
The move to make Jammu and Kashmir an integral part of India also raised hopes of attracting private investment for the state.
In fact, during the first fortnight of November last year, the Jammu and Kashmir administration started creating land banks to woo investors for setting up industrial units in the Union Territory, generating a buzz of ‘big development’ happening soon. The administration later clarified the land bank was being created for the Jammu and Kashmir Global Investors Summit 2020 that was to be held in March 2020.
“We are identifying land that can be used to set up industrial units,” Ravinder Kumar, managing director, Jammu and Kashmir State Industrial Development Corporation had said in November, adding: “The summit will prove a determining factor in ushering Jammu and Kashmir into an industrial hub.”
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Eventually, the summit was postponed indefinitely in April this year after the COVID-19 outbreak.
Commenting on the same, economic and development analyst Ejaz Ayoub told ETV Bharat: “For investment, there should be political stability and infrastructure logistics. Modification of Article 370 would not bring economic stability or investment unless there is political stability.
Rising unemployment:
Jammu and Kashmir is also facing a massive increase in unemployment besides poor industrial growth and lack of investment. The Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE) data showed that unemployment rate in the state rose to 22.4 per cent in August 2019 after the modification of Article 370, and it continued to hover at 18 per cent in June 2020.
“Gross domestic product growth of Jammu and Kashmir is -20 per cent. Unemployment rate as per CMIE has gone up to more than 22 per cent. No investment has come. Global Investment Summit could also not be held… the economy of Jammu and Kashmir has crippled,” said Ayoub.
The common man seems especially disappointed, especially after the new Domicile Act was introduced in March this year.
Earlier, the ‘permanent residents’ of Jammu and Kashmir had sole rights on government jobs. However, new laws now enable outsiders to apply for the jobs in the local government of the Union Territory.
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Khalid Hussain, former IAS officer, said: “A few months after the modification of Article 370 and 35A, the government announced that 8,000 vacancies in different government departments will be filled. But with the revocation of the special status of Jammu and Kashmir, the people here lost their special right on jobs as well. Now the outsiders are also applying for these posts. Most of the recruits will be non-locals, and that is how instead of reducing unemployment, the revocation of special status has created more scope for the joblessness in Jammu and Kashmir.”
The disappointment was visible when ETV Bharat talked to a young man named Mohinder Jeet Singh belonging to the state of Jammu. “The government is only pleasing outsiders by rewarding them with the domicile certificates, while the primary residents of Jammu are under miserable conditions,” he said.
Another young resident Aftab Ahmad of Jammu said: “Prime Minister Narendra Modi promised moon and stars to the people of Jammu and Kashmir. Now after a year, we can see that nothing was done to create jobs and to generate employment avenues.”
“Our economy is getting worse day by day. The unemployment is growing faster and the youth of Jammu and Kashmir are forced to go outside in search of jobs,” added Aftab.
Regional and local political parties are also now getting more critical about the government’s failure to meet its promises for the state.
Sheikh Bashir Ahmad, provisional president of National Conference (NC), said: “The Modi government had justified its 5 August action and declared it as an achievement by saying that it has done a great thing, which its predecessors could not do in the past 70 years. While the fact of the matter is that we have lost everything which we had achieved during that time.”
Shiv Sena’s Jammu and Kashmir president Manish Sahni echoed the same thoughts. “We were anticipating prosperity after the revocation of the special status of Jammu and Kashmir but it seems that the BJP has ruined our hopes and dreams.”
He added: “The people of Jammu had supported the government on this act because several promises regarding development and prosperity were made to us, but now it seems that we have been hoodwinked.”
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