The Kashmiris' rejection of militancy is reflected in the freedom with which ordinary people have begun to talk. Fear of the militants, now mostly 'guests' from Pakistan and Afghanistan, still makes them talk to you singly and ask you not to mention their names, but there is little ambivalence in what they have to say. The mood in Srinagar is a good deal like what one encountered in Punjab in 1993 and 1994: the very same people who hedged their statements, or took refuge in silence, three years ago are suddenly keen to discuss their experiences and to recount their suffering.
The 'taxi driver's tale' is one most journalists are familiar with, but still bears repetition. In 1989, Rashid owned three taxis, and life was good. He had purchased the third of these the previous year, and small amounts had yet to be repaid on the other two, but there was no dearth of custom, and repayment was not a problem. In fact against a monthly repayment of Rs. 2,000 on the new taxi, he was able to repay Rs. 3,000 and even Rs. 4,000 a month in the summer. Rashid's world collapsed in 1990. In 1992 he sold one of the taxis to keep the wolf from the door. A little later he laid off the driver of the second taxi, and gave it to a close friend to drive on an income sharing basis. All this while he had not only been unable to repay the loan, but the interest had mounted on a cumulative basis till he was crushed under the burden of debt. Last year the National Conference Government excused Rs. 50,000 worth of loans but this was not sufficient. The Government has finally agreed to write off the remaining loans and bring taxi drivers on a par with houseboat owners, but the papers are stuck in the secretariat. With the return of some tourists to the valley this year, Rashid has begun to enjoy a comfortable income once again. But he still did not make enough (he claims) to repay his past loans. His one fervent wish is that the Government does nothing that will cause militancy to flare up in Kashmir once again.
Whomsoever one talks to, whether he owns (or works in) a houseboat, restaurant, hotel or shikara, has a similar tale and a similar hope. Most of the criticisms of the Farooq Abdullah Government - and there are many - stem from the fear that bad Government and particularly police repression, will once again tip the State back into militancy. This anxiety accounts for the stridency of the complaints against the N.C. Government in the valley. Many of the complaints are against Dr. Abdullah's style of Government. "He has spent Rs. 25 crores to Rs. 30 crores on a State plane and a helicopter; is spending Rs. 36 lakhs on rebuilding a cinema hall, and gave a grant of Rs. 10 lakhs to a film company that came to make a film in Kashmir. A house is being built for the Chief Minister, and another is being built for the Chief Secretary at a cost of Rs. 1 crore. But there is no money to fix Srinagar's water supply system.''
"He is giving contracts to a coterie of friends from Delhi and we Kashmiris are being left out. The Grand Palace Hotel has been sold to a relative of Mr. Lalit Suri of Bharat Hotels. Various renovation contracts are going to decorators from Delhi''. "He is filling seats in medical and engineering colleges with people from his own constituency and discriminating against candidates from those that elected MLAs of other parties''. "Corruption is rampant. What happened to the Rs. 300 crores Mr. Inder Kumar Gujral released for economic development when he came here? All our Ministers and MLAs are building houses in Jammu. Where is the money coming from?''
"Unemployment is as bad as ever, and is as much a source of graft and injustice as it was before. Dr. Abdullah created a large number of new jobs in the State administration, but allowed each MLA to choose 50 people to fill them. The MLAs are selling these jobs. A Chaprasi's job "costs'' Rs. 15,000. Others cost up to Rs. 50,000. Even an 89-day 'temporary' appointment costs Rs. 5,000'.
"This Government is as repressive as President's rule. For us Kashmiris, nothing has changed. The Army and the BSF may have pulled back, but the Kashmir police has taken over the task of repression. The villain is the Special Operations Group of the Kashmir Police (universally referred to by Kashmiris as the STF or ( Special Task Force), which is extorting money, coercing us into giving information and indulging in custodial killings.
Some of these complaints are unfounded, and some others reflect the State Government's inability to communicate with the local press. The renovation cost of a beautiful old house which will become the official residence of the Chief Minister is Rs. 75 lakhs, which is by no means excessive for an official residence. The renovation of an official residence for the Chief Secretary is expected to cost Rs. 25 lakhs. The purchase of a State plane is a luxury that Dr. Abdullah could have deferred, but given the terrain of Kashmir, the inaccessibility of Ladakh and parts of the valley, and the fact that Dr. Abdullah is at the top of the militants' hit list, it is difficult to see how the purchase of a helicopter could have been avoided.
There is corruption in Kashmir, as in other parts of the country, and little desire within the political system to ferret it out. But the lack of development work is only partly attributable to it. By far the more important cause is the bankruptcy of the State Government. New Delhi's unrelenting attitude towards the repayment of loans taken from the Centre is less than helpful. Kashmir, like other hill States, suffers inordinately from the delays built into the process for disbursing Central grants, because half of its six-month building season, from April to October, is usually over before the money is released. This makes it very difficult to use the funds scrupulously, and makes misappropriation easier than usual.
Were it solvent, it could have taken loans from the banks to tide over the delay, but today, Kashmir is overdrawn to the tune of Rs. 954 crores and cannot get any more loans. Much of this has gone towards repaying Central loans. Kashmir has been asking that its loans, much of which have been incurred to fight militancy anyway, should be adjusted against the revised Gadgil formula for Central assistance, under which it should have been getting 90 per cent in the form of grants and only 10 per cent as loans (instead of 75:25) since 1970. Were this book adjustment made, Rs. 1200 crores of loans would be converted to grants, and the State would become solvent once more.
Today these anxieties have been joined by another larger one. During President's rule, Kashmir's pay scales were equated with those of the Central Government. As a result of the Pay Commission's awards, the J&K Government now has to shell out an extra Rs. 500 crores in salaries alone. Not surprisingly, Dr. Abdullah is at his wits' end: "They ask me where Mr. Gujral's 300 crores went. It went straight into their salaries. There is nothing left for development''.
The allegations of nepotism are less easy to counter: of the entrants to the medical college this year, no less than 32 were from Dr. Abdullah's constituency of Ganderbal against two from Anantnag and none from the constituency of the Speaker of the J&K Assembly. But ultimately, even this, and the complaints listed above, relate to issues of governance. They reflect a shift of the focus of concern among Kashmiris from who governs them to how they are being governed, i.e from issues of legitimacy to those of governance. Only those who had entered into, or been present at the intense debates about Kashmir's future that were the sole staple of conversation during the dark years, can fully appreciate the difference.
The one issue on which the Government has little with which to defend itself is that of police brutality. To me, this was the one subject of conversation that had a familiar and extremely unpleasant ring. The subject is too serious to be dealt with lightly, and deserves separate analysis, but suffice it to say, that police brutality exists; custodial deaths have not been stamped out. And if the Government does not address this issue a lot more effectively than it has so far, this could become the time bomb of the future.