Created by India’s Ministry of Home Affairs in 1994, the Department of Jammu and Kashmir Affairs is tasked with maintaining J&K’s special status, reviewing the state’s security situation and evaluating economic packages established to ameliorate the issues caused by more than 20 years of political instability. Most recently, the department undertook an exhaustive two-year study by interlocutors Dilip Padgoankar, Radha Kumar and MM Ansari aimed at finding a political solution to the state’s unrest.

The princely state of Jammu and Kashmir contained three areas, Jammu, Ladakh and Kashmir, but the insurgency has mostly affected the Kashmir Valley. China captured Aksai Chin, a small segment of the traditionally Tibetan Buddhist Ladakh region during their 1962 war with India. In 1963, Pakistan ceded the adjacent Transkarakoram Tract to China. Pakistan controls about 30% of Jammu and Kashmir.

While the Department of Kashmir was founded in 1994, Kashmir’s core problems date back to India’s independence.

In October 1947, two months after the birth of independent Pakistan and India, Pashtun tribesman from Pakistan’s North Western Frontier Province invaded Kashmir. While they weren’t directly members of Pakistan’s Army, they did so at the behest of the military. At that time, Kashmir was a princely state that controlled by Maharaja Hari Singh, an autocratic Hindu prince, who’d yet to decide where his loyalties lay.  As the tribesman drew closer to Srinagar, the summer capital, Singh grew worried and signed an Instrument of Accession to India against the wishes of Kashmir’s Muslim majority to drive back the tribesmen.

The tribesman maintained the siege on one-fifth of the territory—mostly land that was underdeveloped and mountainous with the exception of Muzaffarabad, Kashmir’s second largest city. India controlled rest of Kashmir, including the world-famous Vale of Kashmir, which is 90 miles long and 25 miles wide. The United Nations Security Council intervened in 1949. The UN decided to let the people of Kashmir vote whether to join India or Pakistan. But the plebiscite never took place. So in essence the dispute remains unresolved, with the recognized international border called the Line of Control. To Kashmiris, the two territories became known as Indian-administered Kashmir and Pakistan-administered Kashmir or less benevolently, Indian-occupied Kashmir or Pakistan-occupied Kashmir.

At first, Kashmir was treated uniquely among other Indian states. Until 1953, for example, Kashmir maintained its own prime minister. But after 1953, the Indian government gradually eroded Kashmir’s autonomy.

By 1975, Kashmir began to look like any other Indian state, with a chief minister as its head. The erosion of autonomy fomented deep anger in Kashmir. The tipping point came after the 1987 state elections. In one contest, Syed Yousaf Shah, a Muslim United Front (MUF) candidate ran to become a member of the state’s Legislative Assembly from a constituency in Srinagar. He said he won the election and reportedly signed papers certifying the election in the counting station. But later, Radio Kashmir declared his opponent, the ruling National Conference’s candidate, Ghulam Mohuddin Shah, as the winner. After disputing the results, Syed Yousaf Shah and his polling agents were imprisoned without trial.

Kashmiris believed the elections were rigged. The discontent bubbled over and exploded into an armed uprising that year. Pakistan’s ISI provided guns and material support to militants.

After his release from prison in the same year, Shah crossed over to Pakistan-Administered-Kashmir and took on the nom de guerre of Salahuddin.

Thousands of Kashmiri youth followed him, crossing over to Pakistan and returning with AK-47s to fight India. Against this backdrop, militants soon became folk heroes to many young boys in Kashmir. Neighborhoods in Srinagar featured gun-toting militants controlling the streets. They became as much a part of daily life as the mosque, the butcher shop and the corner store. In 1990, Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF), a nationalist militant outfit, allegedly began killing Kashmiri Hindus, popularly known as Pandits. In 23 years of conflict, 209 Kashmiri Pandits were killed.

This led to a mass Pandit exodus. More than 100,000 Pandits left the valley, according to Panun Kashmir, an NGO. Many wound up in squalid refugee camps in Jammu or in Delhi. Kashmiri Muslims blamed India for encouraging the migration. Many Kashmiri Muslims alleged that India was securing Hindus to freely target Muslims; many Pandits feared that Muslims in Kashmir who supported independence threatened their very existence.

The Kashmir dispute also became highly politicized. Many Indians began to see the movement for Kashmiri independence as primarily Jihadist as opposed to Nationalist. In reality, the JKLF was the lone militant outfit that pushed for a sovereign country of Kashmir. And as the insurgency moved on, they were outnumbered by 21 other militant outfits that were pro-Pakistani, ISI-funded and trained and largely in favor of imposing Sharia law in Kashmir.

In response to the militancy, India deployed a massive number of troops, turning a land often called “heaven on earth” into one of the world’s most militarized zones, with a ratio of one Indian military man for every ten civilians. By comparison, Iraq, during the height of the U.S. occupation, had a ratio of just one soldier for every 186 civilians. The troops created a climate of fear and resentment amongst Kashmiri civilians, which grew on both sides.

Over the last two decades, the Indian security establishment has come down heavily on the citizenry. For the last 63 years, Kashmiris have sought the right-to-self determination, which was promised to them by the United Nations in 1949 in consultation with India and Pakistan. Kashmiris could never exercise the two options-- whether to join India and Pakistan—and slowly the majority population grew disillusioned with both nations. In the early 1990s, Kashmiris began a guerilla war with the Indian army, demanding independence or accession to Pakistan.  

Since the turn of the millennium, security has improved. The insurgency is mostly confined to a few ISI proxy fighters in remote villages near the Line of Control.

But the massive state security apparatus remains in place, making everyday Kashmiris feel as though they are living under occupation. There has also been no substantive accounting for the conflict and the atrocities committed. As a result, things in Kashmir remain far from normal.

Against this backdrop, Kashmir has a unique and challenging set of issues.

Jammu and Kashmir has a unique relationship with India. As a result, many of the department’s responsibilities are significantly different from those that relate to more mainstream Indian states. Initiatives include:

Reimbursement to Home Owners

The department through the Home Ministry pays out money to homeowners and residents for property damage sustained during war involving CPMF's and the Army with a ceiling of Rs. 10 lakh ($18,000 USD)

The Interlocutors Report

After 2010’s three-month long agitation, which claimed 115 lives of civilian protesters in Jammu and Kashmir, the government of India deputed a three-member team of interlocutors to examine the situation and come up with a solution for the 62-year-old Kashmir dispute.  The interlocutors came from a wide-range of backgrounds: Dilip Padagaonkar was a veteran journalist; Professor Radha Kumar was an academic and MM Ansari was a retired civil servant currently serving as India’s Chief Information Commissioner.

Reimbursement to Security Personnel

The department reimburses troops for supplies, housing, travel and salary. It also pays for any costs associated with bringing in corollary forces and accommodating them.

Administering Cross LoC Trade

In 2008, Manmohan Singh and Pakistani President Parvez Musharraf restarted trade and travel between two Kashmirs, which been separated since independence. The department monitors trucks and trade across the border. It also runs a weekly bus service to unite families split up by the division of Kashmir. There are two routes:

Srinagar – Muzaffarabad and Poonch – Rawalakot.

Prime Ministers Reconstruction Plan

The department oversees a Rs. 26,288 crore ($4,796.21 million USD) reconstruction plan for J&K to expand economic infrastructure, bring jobs and offer support to victims of militancy. Various ministries implement the programs in consultation with the state government.  The department of J&K monitors their progress in concert with the Planning Commission. Out of 67 planned projects, 30 have been completed.

Relief and Rehabilitation of Kashmiri Migrants

After violence forced most Kashmiri Pandits to flea the valley, several measures were adopted to provide financial assistance and other relief. These include cash stipends of up to Rs. 4,000 ($72.59 USD) per month, per family, loan forgiveness and education assistance.

For Pandits living in slums in Jammu, there is also Rs. 385 crore ($70.24 million USD) plan to build permanent apartments. To date, 1,024 units have been completed.  For Pandits wishing to return to the Kashmir Valley, the government is building 200 apartments for Rs. 22.90 crore ($4.18 million USD).

Relief Measures for Victims of Militancy under PM’s Package

Under this package, relatives of civilians killed due to the militancy receive Rs.5 lakh ($9,073.55 USD). There is also a provision to help those widowed or orphaned and assistance to farmers whose crops or orchards have been damaged.

The J&K Rehabilitation Council Scheme

In 2011-12, the program provided money to 481 widows, 1,740 orphans, 2,272 seniors and 968 handicapped people affected by the militancy.

Power Projects

The department is coordinating the construction of power projects at Chutak and Uri-2, which are almost finished.  They are also overseeing a project to bring electricity to more than 2000 villages and 40 people without power.

Road Improvements

The department also worked to complete the DomelKatra and Narbal-Tangmarg road projects and upgrade the Mughal Road, Batote-Kishtwar Road (NH 1B) and widening the Srinagar-Leh Road.

Jobs Training Program

Special Industry Initiative for J&K is a five-year-long jobs training program that will serve 8,000 youth in fields like retail/supply chain management, managerial and entrepreneurship skills and IT and call centers, helping the government of J&K institute a program to recruit and employ 3,000 Kashmiri migrant unemployed youth.

Amarnath Yatra

This program protects Hindu Pilgrims on the annual Amarnath Yatra, a cave in Kashmir that’s one of Hinduism’s holiest sites.

Propagation of Indigenous Arts and Culture

The department also funds the Jammu & Kashmir Academy of Art, Culture and Languages in Srinagar. In 2010-2011, they spent Rs. 49.32 lakh ($89,501.54 USD) to the academy to send a band of performers to festivals in seven Indian cities.

Transit Accommodation

The department also plans to build 495 transit accommodation units. So far, 335 units have been completed.

Jammu and Ladakh Development Taskforce

The department convened a Special Task Forces to tackle development in Jammu and Ladakh regions, which don’t draw as much attention as the Kashmir Valley.

Because of the unrest, J&K gets a far larger share of Home Ministry and other government entities like the Planning Commission money than other states. This is amplified by the fact that it’s the only state with its own department within the ministry. Below is a listing of major expenditures:

Reimbursement to Security Personnel

In 2011, the department spent Rs. 200 crore ($36.27 million USD) on security related expenses. Between fiscal year 1989 and fiscal year 2009, the department spent Rs. 2,925,255 crore ($5.51 billion USD) on reimbursing security personnel.  

Prime Ministers Reconstruction Plan

Rs. 26,288 crore ($4,796.21 million USD) reconstruction plan for J&K .

Relief and Rehabilitation of Kashmiri Migrants

This program provides cash stipends of up to Rs. 4,000 ($72.59 USD) per month per family, loan forgiveness and education assistance. Also, apartments for Pandits in Jammu: Rs. 385 crore ($70.24 million USD). Apartments for Pandits returning to the Kashmir Valley: Rs. 22.93 crore ($4.18 million USD).

The J&K Rehabilitation Council Scheme

Compensation to the deceased Rs. 100 crore ($18.25 million USD) has been spent to settle 2,643 cases.

Propagation of Indigenous Arts and Culture

The Jammu & Kashmir Academy of Art, Culture and Languages Rs. 49.32 lakh ($89,501.54 USD) to the academy to send a band of performers to festivals in seven Indian cities.

Jammu and Ladakh Development Taskforce

To date, Rs. 250 crore ($45.61 million USD) has been released. Jammu received Rs. 150 crore ($27.37 million USD) and Ladakh’s Leh and Kargil districts received Rs. 50 crore ($9.12 million USD) each.

Over the next two years, the Special Task Force for Jammu will receive Rs. 497 crore ($90.68 million USD) while its counterpart in Ladakh will draw Rs. 416 crore ($75.90 million USD).

The central government earmarked an additional Rs. 100 crore ($18.25 million USD) to fix schools and colleges damaged during the militancy in Jammu and Ladakh.

Prime Ministers Reconstruction Plan

On November 3, 2011, the central government earmarked an additional Rs. 27.24 crore ($4.97 million USD) for the families of surrendered militants and civilians killed in the conflict. Families were given Rs. 4 lakh ($7,258.88 USD) per person.

Implementation of PM’s Package for Rehabilitation

Rs. 28,004 crore ($5.12 billion USD).

Kashmir’s Mass Graves

In December 2009, Srinagar-based human rights group, Jammu Kashmir Coalition of Civil Societies (JKCCS), released a report on human rights abuses. The report revealed 2,700 unidentified and unmarked graves in Northern Kashmir. The report says many graves contained multiple bodies. “The graveyard entombs bodies of those murdered in encounter and fake encounter killings from 1990-2009,” the report reads. Fake encounters is Indian speak for extra-judicial killings that are covered up by the police or army. In Kashmir, the men are often are often portrayed as foreign militants.

A 2008 Amnesty International letter to Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh detailed India’s alleged rights abuses in Kashmir and called for an independent inquiry, claiming that “grave sites are believed to contain the remains of victims of unlawful killings, enforced disappearances, torture and other abuses which occurred in the context of armed conflict persisting in the state since 1989.

Over 2,000 Found Buried In Kashmir's Unmarked Graves – Report (by Sheikh Mushtaq, Reuters)

India: Continuing Repression in Kashmir (Human Rights Watch) (pdf)

Truth, Exhumed (by Chander Suta Dogra, Outlook)

Killing of Innocent Civilians at Peaceful Protests

In the summer 2010, Kashmiri people came out on streets to protest against human rights violations. The mass agitation started after Tufail Mattoo, a 17-year-old boy, was shot dead by Indian security forces on June 11, 2010, when he was returning home from a private tutor. The protests morphed into a massive anti-India agitation, with people demanding complete withdrawal of armed forces from Kashmir and subsequent freedom from the Indian rule. In response, the government resorted to shooting the protesters at will, killing 112 Kashmiris over three months.

One Year On, Tufail Mattoo’s Family Still Awaits Justice (NDTV)

What Kashmir Wants (by Najib Jung, Times of India)

‘The Whole Neighbourhood Knew Of His Death Before Us' (by Krishnakumar Pabmanhabhan, Rediff)

Fake Encounters

Since the insurgency began back in 1989, there have been hundred of “fake encounters,” where a unarmed civilians have been shot by various branches of the Indian Armed Forces, including the Rashtriya Rifles, Border Security Force, Central Reserve Police Force and government paid counterinsurgents, who were comprised of former militants who are paid by the government. Among the ugliest of the fake encounters have been the killing of Kashmir’s most vulnerable population: the indigent. In 2010, members of the Rashtriya Rifles allegedly killed a beggar, Habibullah Khan, and portrayed him as a militant. Six men faced charges in the case. These incidents have been very embarrassing for India. Xinhua, the Chinese state newswire that supports Pakistan’s claims on Kashmir and often prints embarrassing stories, even picked up on the story. The incident recalled a similar one that took place in 2001, when another beggar was killed and then made to look like a militant.

Indian Army Accused of Killing Beggar in India-Controlled Kashmir (by Peerzada Arshad Hamid, Xinhua)

Militants May Have Used Deceased: Army (by Umer Maqbool Dar, Greater Kashmir)

Find Long-Term Solution to Pandit Crisis

Despite the construction of 120 flats to resettle Pandits in Kashmir, just 31 flats have been occupied. Many Pandits still feel Kashmir is unsafe; a position supported by Panun Kashmir, the largest organization representing Pandits. Panun Kashmir rejects the prime minister’s resettlement package. Instead, they believe that that rather than trying to resettle Pandits in Kashmir, there should be a permanent plant to resettle them in permanent homes outside of the Valley.

Kashmiri Pandits, the Nowhere People (Hindustan Times)

Efforts on to Facilitate Return of Kashmiri Pandits: Omar Abdullah (Press Trust India)

Armed Forces Special Powers Act

After the killing of 112 protesters in 2010, the debate over revocation of the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (APSPA) again heated up. First enacted on August 18, 1958, to stanch an insurgency in the Naga Hills, the law has remained in effect in significant segments of the seven states of Northeast India and, since 1990, Jammu and Kashmir. In Kashmir and in Northeastern states like Manipur, the law provides legal cover for Indian security forces to commit significant human rights abuses. Under the act, it’s virtually impossible to bring soldiers to trial for killings, abductions, torture and forced disappearances, even with overwhelming evidence of wrongdoing. In many unprovoked civilian killings, Assam Rifles’ personnel have stage-managed bodies to make the deaths seem the result of an ambush from militants.

Pro-AFSPA

India’s armed forces resists any effort to end, amend or curtail the rights granted to them under this law. Leaders of the armed forces like the Assam Rifles frequently argue that if they eliminate AFSPA from part or all of Kashmir, militants will feel free to operate. As General T.K Sapru told NDTV, “The Army's concern is that if you have a contingency where you want to deploy the Army on counter-insurgency operations then you have to give them this Act. Without that, they can't operate. That's the basic thing.”

India: Briefing. The Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) Review Committee takes one step forward and two backwards (Amnesty International)

Kashmir: The View From Srinagar (International Crisis Group)

India: Repeal Armed Forces Special Powers Act (Human Rights Watch)

Anti-AFSPA

The anti-AFSPA side enjoys widespread support from vastly different constituencies. Many everyday people in Kashmir see the AFSPA as the extreme manifestation of an Indian occupation that can begin with frequent stop and frisks at traffic-choking roadblocks and checkpoints and can end with soldier shooting you dead with little chance for a fair post-mortem investigation. The Indian military has devoted little attention to the battle for hearts and minds in Kashmir. And the AFSPA is its greatest liability.

Those citizens are joined in their oppositions by politicians from across Kashmir’s ideological spectrum: from hardline separatists like Syed Ali Geelani to the pro-India Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir, Omar Abdullah.

In March 2012, the UN's Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions Christof Heyns, described the act as having “no role to play in a democracy.” Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International have repeatedly echoed this call.

India: Accept UN Rights Body Recommendations (Human Rights Watch)

Omar Completes 3 Years In Office, Says AFSPA Issue Not On Backburner (Press Trust of India)

Kashmir: The Riddle of AFSPA (by Sreenivasan Jain, NDTV)

Was the Interlocutors Report Worth the Effort?

In the summer 2010, with the anger bubbling on the streets of Srinagar, three outsiders showed up to take stock of a conflict that had simmered for more than two decades in India’s northernmost state. The interlocutors report was a response to a long-standing Kashmiri demand for a truth and reconciliation commission, similar to the one employed in South Africa at the end of apartheid. When the report came out in May 2012, not only Kashmiri people but also the rightwing Indian political parties rejected it.  

For about year, the interlocutors met 700 delegations in all the 22 districts of Jammu and Kashmir. But they couldn’t convince the separatist leadership of Kashmir to come to the table.  The final report in May 2012 seemed to disappoint all sides. The interlocutors faced an impossible task. To right-wing Hindu nationalists, Kashmir will always be an integral part of India, the head of “Bharat Mata” or Mother India. To hardline Kashmiri Muslims, anything less than independence or accession to Pakistan is unacceptable. Since the interlocutors were tasked with settling the Kashmir dispute within the framework of the Indian Constitution, their mission clashed with the sentiment of most Kashmiris.

The Report Offers Nothing to Kashmiris

Syed Ali Geelani, the hardline leader of Kashmir who believes Kashmir should merge with Pakistan, turned his back toward the interlocutors, so did the moderate resistance leaders who’ve previously engaged in a fruitless dialogue process with India. Geelani held the view that there was “no need for a new road map on Kashmir” as people simply want (freedom) from India.  

BJP Rejects Kashmir Interlocutors' Report (Press Trust India)

The Report Compromises Indian Sovereignty

The interlocutors neglected this aspiration as they largely focused on implementation of new employment schemes that would divert the attention of the Kashmiri youth and also suggested the resumption of bi-lateral dialogue between Indian government and the separatist leaders.

Interlocutors' Report Fails To Enthuse Kashmiris (by Shujaat Bukhari, The Hindu)

P Chidambaram (November 30, 2008 – July 31, 2012)

Chidambaram Palaniappan, commonly known as P Chidambaram, was the union minister of Home Affairs until July 31, 2012. A senior leader of the ruling Congress party, he later served as the Minister of Finance.

Like many leading Indian politicians, Chidambaram comes from a wealthy merchant family. He graduated from Madras Christian College Higher Secondary School, a prestigious private school. He then earned his bachelors in statistics from The Presidency College, Madras and his bachelors in law from Madras Law College.

In 1968, he earned his Masters in Business Administration from Harvard.

After working as a Madras High Court lawyer, Chidambaram was first elected to the Lok Sabha in 1984 from Tamil Nadu’s Sivaganga constituency. 

Chidambaram is widely considered smart and capable. In 1991, as Minister of Commerce in the PV Narasimha Rao-led Congress government, he reportedly rewrote India’s foreign trade policy in one go during a marathon eight-hour session.

But he has equally frequently been accused of graft. And in 1992, he resigned over allegations that he received discounted stocks in Fairgrowth, a company found guilty of a stock scam.

The affair initiated a feud with rival Tamil politician Subramanian Swamy, who petitioned the Supreme Court to investigate evidence Chidambaram stashed huge sums of black money abroad. 

In 1996, he quit the Congress party and, along with G Moopanar, launched the Tamil Maanila Congress because he disapproved of Narasimha Rao’s alliance with J Jayalalitha’s AIADMK.

Chidambaram was widely acclaimed for the budget he presented in the parliament in 1998 as the Finance Minister of the United Front government, a ruling coalition comprised of 13 different parties that notably excluded both the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). The corporate sector welcomed his measures to reduce tax burdens and simplify foreign investment.  But his representation of companies with dubious records like Vedanta and Enron, who’d benefit from these measures, raised accusations of a conflict of interest. 

In 2004, Chidambaram returned to the Congress party for his second stint as finance minister in the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance I government

Chidambaram seemed far less comfortable as the Minister of Home Affairs, a portfolio he assumed at the end of 2008. Chidambaram quickly stumbled. He fought the Naxalite insurgency with bellicose rhetoric and failed operations, most notably a Naxalite massacre of 76 Central Reserve Police Force fighters on April 6, 2010.

He also offended many politicians and citizens when he blamed Delhi’s migrant workers for an uptick of crime in the capital.

Chidambaram has continued to be controversial. He was re-elected for the seventh time to the Parliament from Sivaganga in 2009. After the election, his rival demanded a recount, claiming Chidambaram had cheated.  He was also accused of complicity in the 2G scam, a charge that he has denied. The charge revived taunts by Swamy that Chidambaram was one of India’s leading black money hoarders.

On July 31, 2012, he became the Minister of Finance for the third time, tying Manmohan Singh’s record for holding the portfolio.

P Chidambaram (Wikipedia)