Kashmir’s Power Crisis: Article 370 Dominates Election Discourse

There is palpable discontent over the government’s failure to deliver on promised development following the scrapping of the State’s special status.

Even as political parties in Jammu and Kashmir go about wooing voters for the Lok Sabha election—Anantnag-Rajouri, Srinagar and Baramulla constituencies in Kashmir vote from May 7—the Valley is facing a severe power crisis that has thrown normal life out of gear. The daily power cuts last 13 to 15 hours, plunging the Valley into darkness on most days; the worst affected are patients who rely on home oxygen supply for respiratory illnesses.

After politics, power supply seems to be the biggest concern in Kashmir. Even the Hurriyat Conference chairman Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, during his address after Friday prayers last week, termed the electricity situation in Kashmir as “alarming”. “We are told that prosperity has come, but the basic facility of electricity is nowhere; this is impacting our daily lives, leaving our homes and businesses powerless. Despite having huge water resources and generation capacity, electricity produced by Jammu and Kashmir is exported outside, plunging the Valley into darkness,” said Farooq at Srinagar’s historic Jamia Masjid.

The Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha-led administration, on the other hand, maintained that the demand for electricity in Kashmir has outstripped supply, leading to a substantial power deficit.

Inflated bills

The people in the Valley claim that ever since the Bharatiya Janata Party-led Central government withdrew the State’s special status by scrapping Article 370 of the Indian Constitution, and downgraded the State into two Union Territories—Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh—the power crisis has worsened in the region with bills inflated by 40-50 per cent.

In order to combat power theft and losses, the Jammu and Kashmir Power Development Department (JKPDD), started installing smart metres in 2020 against the will of consumers. But power supply did not improve.

The Union Territory relies extensively on hydropower harnessed from rivers to meet its energy demands. But the major chunk is harnessed by the National Hydro Power Corporation (NHPC), and Jammu and Kashmir has to buy electricity from the northern grid at exorbitant rates.

Successive governments and the separatists have often asked the Centre to return NHPC-run projects to Jammu and Kashmir. Even when the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the BJP formed an alliance government in 2015, the return of two major power projects was on the agenda, but ultimately it did not materialise.

The Central government instead attributed Article 370 as a barrier for the State’s development, after August 5, 2019, when the State lost its special status, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Ministers claimed that Jammu and Kashmir would now witness development, including round-the-clock electricity. For example, in September 2019, Union Minister of Power Raj Kumar Singh promised that electricity supply in Kashmir would be far better than it was previously, but the power crisis continues to torment people.

Even former Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad, who quit the Congress and floated his own party—the Democratic Progressive Azad Party—in February, promised that if he was elected he would provide free electricity to the poor. Azad’s party, seen as BJP’s proxy in Kashmir, however did not field any candidates from the three seats of Kashmir.

Political vacuum

After the failure of the Gupkar Alliance and the INDIA bloc in Jammu and Kashmir, both the National Conference (NC) and the PDP are pitted against each other in the Valley. Both parties, however, ask people for votes to fight for the restoration of Article 370 and to keep BJP and its “harsher” policies at bay.

The power crisis, according to NC spokesperson Ifra Jan, has emerged as a major challenge for the people of Kashmir in to the absence of an elected government. “For the past nearly six years Jammu and Kashmir has been forcibly controlled by New Delhi through an unelected government that does not listen to the people. The power crisis is definitely an issue in the Valley, but during the ongoing election campaign people have expressed other major issues they are going through: disempowerment, injustice and intimidation,” Jan told Frontline.

Almost two months from now, Jammu and Kashmir will enter its sixth year without an elected government after the PDP-BJP alliance broke up in 2018 leading to a political vacuum.

According to Aga Ruhullah Mehdi, the NC candidate for the Srinagar Lok Sabha seat, the power crisis can become a driving force for many to vote against the BJP. Mehdi, during his campaign in downtown Srinagar, said people narrated with frustration how soaring electricity bills had crushed them. “Kashmir has seen back-to-back crises after the 2014 floods, due to which many people currently do not have any source of income. The government, on the other hand, without understanding the pain of poor people, increases the power tariff and imposes various other taxes.” Mehdi told Frontline.

Noor Ahmad Baba, a political analyst in Kashmir, however, argues that the power crisis is not new in the region and that people have lived through such crises before. “But when Article 370 was scrapped power supply was part of the current dispensation’s agenda under its much-hyped vikas (development). But after five years the BJP government will definitely get to see if people have accepted their policies, including developmental initiatives.”

Baba added that people in the Valley, while voting, will have Article 370 on their minds; in Kashmir political issues are more important than the lack of basic amenities. “Throughout the country the nature of governance has changed and people, while expressing dissent, or protesting, have the fear of reprisal. The only way left for people is to participate in elections.”

In Pulwama, once known as a hotbed of militancy in the Valley, Ajaz Ahmad who runs a diagnostic and testing lab, told Frontline that he, along with his friends, will vote not only for basic amenities but also against the policies of the government. “I am 45-year-old but I have only voted once in my life. This time, however, casting my vote is necessary to keep the BJP out of power. People face various crises but they are fearful of speaking against the government. In the past five years we have only seen deafening silence and uncertainty.” Source