The next steps in Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh
Alok Bansal | Director of India Foundation and an adjunct professor, New Delhi Institute of Management
Hindustan Times
Bansal writes about the Narendra Modi government’s decision on Kashmir and how the state must take stock of its opportunities before trouble is created by “separatists and backers” across the LoC. To take the local population in confidence, it must make visible economic initiatives – creating employment avenues being paramount. Tourism and construction will be soon big sectors, but the two Union Territories (UTs) must have new capitals and cities to facilitate this.
Over Rs 150 crore is spent annually to just shift administrative machinery between Jammu and Srinagar. A capital created halfway between these cities will ensure huge savings for the exchequer, better security, connectivity and infrastructure. In Ladakh too, creating a new capital city could help quell conflict between Kargil and Leh and offer a source of employment and investment. Apart from these, new cities connected by future railway lines could serve as “transit hubs and business centres”. The tourism industry can grow beyond Srinagar, Pahalgam and Gulmarg, and include more regions of Ladakh.
It is important now for territorial disputes to be resolved, and the delimitation of constituencies be carried out correctly. Official maps of the UTs have not been released but TV channels show Gilgit Baltistan as being part of J&K. Belonging to Ladakh Wazarat till 1947, this region should be considered “Pakistan-occupied Ladakh”, concludes Bansal.
A long night in the Valley
Mani Shankar Aiyar | Former Union Minister
The Indian Express
Aiyar writes that Narendra Modi and Amit Shah have “created a Palestine” in Kashmir. By imposing a severe lockdown in the state, fundamental rights of the Kashmiris are being destroyed, he writes.
The way Palestinians collectively rejected the “Manama package of U/S petrodollars goodies” in exchange for peace, Kashmiris will similarly reject Modi’s offer of enslaved prosperity”, claims Aiyar. In reality, Kashmiri Muslims have historically shown patriotism to India, being the sole Muslim-majority state in undivided India which did not choose Pakistan. Ordinary Kashmiris also dutifully reported Pakistani intruders who had infiltrated in 1965 during Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto’s infamous Operation Gibraltar.
If Kashmiris had been given the opportunity, they could have had a more liberal order than they are being offered now “with a pistol to their temple”. The naya Kashmir manifesto adopted by the National Conference in 1944 was a progressive socialist plan which laid down visions for equality, women empowerment, equal gender rights and the “right to work”. Hence, we are no one to teach them the virtues of democracy now. Instead of “ache din”, what now ensues is a “long night in the Valley and perhaps even the rest of the country”, concludes Aiyar.
Let us grant Kashmir freedom from Indian aesthetics
Manu Joseph | Journalist and a novelist, most recently of ‘Miss Laila, Armed And Dangerous’
Mint
Manu Joseph writes that for a long time, the ambassadors of Kashmir have only sold the idea that “all Kashmiris wish for independence from India”. He argues that “the most fervent wish of the average Kashmiri was so drowned in the noise of making India the villain that Narendra Modi’s liberation of Kashmir from its own elite in the name of ‘development’ may actually turn out to be a popular move in the region”.
He cites his interviews with Kashmiris who were not activists, writers or politicians to corroborate his argument. Most of them, he says, were ready to move on and more interested in jobs and prosperity than politics. He mentions that one guy from Kashmir wrote to him once saying that a certain section of people represent Kashmir in the global media and who impose their political ideology on others.
He concludes by saying that many Kashmiri leaders “fear happiness, because it is trauma that keeps their politics alive”.
Four Horsemen of Revival
Bibek Debroy | The author is chairman, Economic Advisory Council to the PM
The Economic Times
Bibek Debroy writes that the central government has limited options to achieve its goal of $5 trillion GDP even though there are four things which it can do. However, he says these “will have time lags of at least a year before they manifest as higher growth”.
First, he suggests, that for both personal income and corporate tax, all exemptions must be eliminated. This will lead to a decline in compliance costs, “and tax rates can drop significantly for both corporate tax and personal income tax”.
Second, he recommends that the GST should have three rates – 6 per cent, 12 per cent and 18 per cent without exemptions or special treatments.
Third, he writes that public expenditure can be made more efficient by reducing the number of centrally-sponsored schemes to not more than 10-15.
Fourth, he mentions that the privatisation of Public Sector Enterprises (PSEs) should start with an inventory of land.
The imprint of a state juggernaut
Valerian Rodrigues | Political science professor at Jawaharlal Nehru University
The Hindu
Rodrigues writes about the recent Budget session of Parliament which is being called “unprecedented” in its performance and productivity. The 17th Lok Sabha held 37 sittings that extended over 280 hours, the Rajya Sabha held 35 sittings, 40 bills were passed in total, 183 starred questions answered, 1,066 “matters of urgent importance” were taken up. This may seem impressive, but whether both Houses were “steamrolled” to agreeing with the government in power is the bigger question.
NDA’s legislation and style of pushing bills through reveal a four-part message. Firstly, the Parliament does not need to discuss or debate measures for public good, but merely “play second fiddle” to the executive. Secondly, “formal legal equality” is the key. Differences on ground and considerations of diversity are considered “suspect”. Thirdly, there has been a strong emphasis on strengthening “surveillance and investigative instrumentalities” of the state. Fourth, measures such as amending the RTI Act indicate the shift to an “institutional hierarchy”.
If the proceedings of this session are an indication of what’s to come next, then “Parliament has been securely chained to India’s state juggernaut”, concludes Rodrigues.
How to make the horse drink water
Tamal Bandyopadhyay | The writer, a consulting editor with Business Standard, is an author and senior adviser to Jana Small Finance Bank Ltd. His latest book, HDFC Bank 2.0: From Dawn to Digital was released recently.
Business Standard
Tamal Bandyopadhyay writes that the banking system has been reluctant to pass on the benefits of low interest rates to borrowers and discusses ways through which better monetary policy transmission could be achieved. At one level, he writes, this reluctance is due to the pile of bad loans. Also, he writes that lowering of rates does not affect the cost of the entire deposit portfolio of the banks.
He writes that the transmission of policy rates need to be looked at not just for loans alone but for deposits as well. To reduce the deposit cost of banks, it is important to have floating deposit base, he suggests. Bringing down the cost of deposits is the key to bringing down the loan rates. He concludes by saying that, “If we remain obsessed with monetary transmission for loans alone, banks may end up robbing Peter to pay Paul”.
Immigration in hotter times
Sunita Narain | The writer is at the Centre for Science and Environment
Business Standard
Sunita Narain discusses the impact climate change on migration. She writes that crises due to climate change affect people living on the margins of survival and forces them to migrate. She, however, does say that migration is not always due to a “push but also due to a pull” – “the grass is greener on the other side of the Mexican wall”.
She asks what our response should be to migration that climate change has induced and hastened. She says that migration is affecting the politics of countries and regions, be it in India, Europe or the US. But we have little data on the causes of migration, she writes.
She also writes that while entire cities and countries have been created by migrants, the process of migration is now reaching a tipping point. For instance, it is affecting politics with demands for domicile reservation and migrant counting becoming popular.
She concludes by saying: “I have no conclusions to offer. But I do believe that it is time we discussed the true nature of our climate in jeopardy. In human terms”.