What the Centre appears close to conferring on Jammu and Kashmir with one hand — the right to govern itself through its own elected leaders — it seems intent on curtailing with the other.

As Assembly polls in the Union Territory appear to draw near, the Narendra Modi government has entrusted to the lieutenant governor (LG) key powers normally wielded by an elected government, prompting allegations of reducing future chief ministers to a “rubber stamp” and the Assembly to a “municipality”.

In a notification on Friday, the Union home ministry amended the rules of the J&K Reorganisation Act, 2019, giving the LG unbridled powers over the police, public order, all-India services and the anti-corruption bureau.

The amendments suggest the elected government, once it is formed, will have limited powers in crucial matters relating to internal security, transfers, prosecutions and the appointment of government lawyers, including the advocate-general.

While the notification does not refer to elections or elected governments, its timing suggests that its provisions are meant to continue beyond the proposed Assembly polls, particularly since the LG currently calls the shots over every administrative
decision, anyway.

The home ministry has inserted new sections defining the LG’s role into the “transaction of business rules” for the Union Territory, exercising its powers under Section 55 of the 2019 Act.

“No proposal which requires previous concurrence of the Finance Department with regard to ‘Police’, ‘Public Order’, ‘All India Service’ (AIS) and ‘Anti Corruption Bureau’ (ACB) to exercise the discretion of the Lieutenant Governor under the Act shall be concurred or rejected unless it has been placed before the Lieutenant Governor through the Chief Secretary,” the notification says.

Another provision says that proposals relating to the postings and transfers of administrative secretaries and all-India service cadre must be submitted to the LG by the administrative secretary, general administration department, through the chief secretary — implying the chief minister will have no role.

Similarly, the law, justice and parliamentary affairs department must submit any proposal for the appointment of the advocate-general — and other law officers who would assist him or her in court matters — through the chief secretary and the chief minister for the LG’s approval. Again, the chief minister’s role seems recommendatory.

The law department is also required to place any proposal relating to the grant or refusal of sanction for prosecution, or to the filing of appeals, before the LG through the chief secretary.

Matters relating to prisons, the directorate of prosecution, or the forensic science laboratory are to be submitted to the LG by the administrative secretary, home department, through the chief secretary.

The National Conference and the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) condemned the Centre’s action.

“Another indicator that elections are around the corner in J&K. This is why a firm commitment laying out the timeline for restoration of full, undiluted statehood for J&K is a prerequisite for these elections,” former chief minister Omar Abdullah said.

“The people of J&K deserve better than powerless, rubber stamp CM who will have to beg the LG to get his/ her peon appointed.”

PDP president Mehbooba Mufti said in a video: “Ours was the most powerful Assembly in the country. You had already robbed off everything (that was) in it. Now you want to convert it into a municipality so that any new government - BJP will never form a government – have no power (even) to transfer an employee.

“What action to take against anybody or not, that right also goes to the chief secretary and lieutenant governor, the same lieutenant governor who is a non-local.”

She added: “You are talking of merging (the) other (Pakistan-occupied) Kashmir with it but you have turned lives (in) this Kashmir into hell.”

House arrests

The LG’s administration on Saturday allegedly placed Mehbooba and a battery of senior political leaders in Jammu and Kashmir under house arrest to prevent them visiting the “martyrs’ graveyard” in Old Srinagar.

The administration has since the 2019 scrapping of the special status prevented politicians from visiting the graveyard, a symbol of Kashmiris’ resistance against the erstwhile Dogra rulers. On July 13, 1931, the then Dogra rulers’ forces had shot dead 22 Kashmiri protesters.