EW DELHI – Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi likes to practice what American generals call “shock and awe.” The last time Modi stunned the country – and was initially applauded for his decisiveness and bold vision – was when he announced, on a few hours’ notice, the demonetization of 96% (in value) of India’s currency. The Indian economy is still dealing with the consequences

On August 5, Modi shocked India with another announcement that may turn out to be the political equivalent of the demonetization debacle. After seven decades in which both the people of Jammu and Kashmir – India’s only Muslim-majority state – and the international community had been assured that the state would maintain its special status under the Indian constitution, the government unilaterally divided it. Modi’s administration has carved out a union territory in the high plateaux and hills of Ladakh in the eastern half of the state, and reduced the status of the remainder – still named Jammu and Kashmir – from that of a state to a union territory. (A union territory is directly administered by the federal government, though it may have an elected legislature and cabinet, with limited powers.)

Many in India worry that, as with demonetization, the short- and medium-term damage caused by Modi’s decision will greatly outweigh the theoretical long-term benefits. First and foremost is the breathtaking betrayal of Indian democracy: the government has changed the constitutional relationship of the people of Jammu and Kashmir to the Republic of India without consulting them or their elected representatives.

The government claimed that the concurrence of the state of Jammu and Kashmir was obtained (as the Indian constitution requires). But this was based on shameless legal legerdemain. Jammu and Kashmir is under direct federal rule, so “state” was translated to mean the governor appointed by New Delhi. In effect, the government received its own consent to amend the constitution!

Worse, the decision was submitted to Parliament, where the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)’s majority guaranteed its prompt passage, without consulting the local political parties. The state’s democratically elected political leaders were placed under arrest for “preventive” purposes. Educational institutions were closed, and communications – television networks, mobile phones, landlines, and the Internet – were shut down. Even if the government can convince skeptics that it is adhering to the letter of the law, its decision betrays the spirit of Indian democracy.

The damage is already becoming apparent. Tourism, the lifeline of Kashmir, has been devastated; decades of effort by Indian governments to reverse foreign governments’ warnings against travel to Kashmir by portraying the region as safe have been undone. The irony is that Modi, on a visit to Kashmir in 2017, had called on the youth of the state (where unemployment is well above the Indian average) to choose between tourism and terrorism. Tourism could have absorbed many of these unemployed youth. But now foreign governments are again issuing advisories, the shikaras (houseboats) are out of business, and handicraft makers and carpet-weavers, the great artisans of Kashmir, are broke. The Amarnath Yatra – a revered symbol of Indian secularism – which annually takes thousands of Hindu pilgrims to a shrine in the snowy north of the state, has been rudely interrupted.

Indians are proud to say Kashmiris are our fellow citizens. But their living conditions today are appalling: stores and gas stations are closed; fuel and other essential supplies are beginning to run out; no communications are available; and people cannot even watch television unless they have a satellite link, which very few do. The vast majority of our Kashmiri fellow citizens are living in a near-total blackout.

https://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/modi-indian-clampdown-in-kashmir-by-shashi-tharoor-2019