Srinagar: The Bharatiya Janata Party-led Union government’s take over of the budget of Jammu & Kashmir police has raised eyebrows. Opposition parties have cautioned that the move hints at New Delhi’s direct control of the erstwhile state’s law and order apparatus for a longer period and restoration of full-fledged statehood seems bleak in the near future.
The Union government’s move comes against the backdrop of its oft-repeated promises of restoration of J&K’s statehood, with the latest assurance made by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Kashmir just a month ago.
With the shifting of ownership of J&K Police budget, New Delhi now has complete control over the finances of the one lakh plus force. This follows the takeover of its legislative and administrative functions through a series of legal changes and executive orders, starting from August 5, 2019 when it revoked the erstwhile state’s semi-autonomous status and bifurcated it into two Union territories.
J&K police budget
For the first time, J&K police’s budget figured in the grants of the Ministry of the Home Affairs (MHA) along with the Central Armed Forces, Intelligence Bureau, Special Protection Group (SPG) National Intelligence Grid, Delhi police and other organisations under its administrative control.
Even after downgrading of J&K to a Union territory in 2019, J&K police allocations were part of the Union territory’s own budget, which was presented in the Parliament annually, post August 5, 2019, in absence of a Legislative Assembly in the erstwhile state. J&K has been under New Delhi’s rule for more than six years now and could witness the longest spell of direct central rule in any state/UT in Independent India if assembly polls are not held this year.
While Union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman has described takeover as part of New Delhi’s financial benevolence and munificence for J&K, the political parties say that it is an indication that J&K police would remain under Union government’s control for a longer period. “It is further encroachment upon powers of J&K government,” Senior National Conference leader and former MP, Justice Hasnain Masoodi told The Wire.
He said the Union home ministry’s fiscal control over J&K Police belies the assurances about restoration of J&K’s statehood made by Prime Minister Modi.
“On Yoga day, Prime Minister Modi came here and reiterated that J&K’s statehood would be restored very soon but shifting of fiscal management of J&K police and concentration of powers in the Lieutenant Governor doesn’t match with these commitments. They are contradictory to each other,” he said.
Describing it as the “most worrying” development, senior Congress leader Jairam Ramesh asked the Union government whether it reflects their intention of ruling J&K in perpetuity from New Delhi by retaining home affairs of J&K with it.
“Will the finance minister commit in the House that taking over police salary liability is not a Trojan Horse and that when J&K is upgraded back to a state, police and security matters continue to be with the state?” he asked
Senior Communist Party of India (Marxist) leader and four-time MLA, M.Y. Tarigami told The Wire that the MHA has assumed full control over J&K Police by taking over its budget. “They should have increased central assistance to J&K rather than taking over control of its police budget,” he said, adding that New Delhi’s actions in Kashmir have created an alienation of unprecedented level.
He said these actions show that New Delhi is not serious in fulfilling its promise of restoration of full-statehood of J&K.
Control over Police
Like other states, J&K police was under control of the state government till 2019 as it falls in the state subject list under the Seventh Schedule of the Constitution.
In J&K, the police have always remained directly under control of the chief minister by virtue of them being minister in-charge of the home department.
After Bakshi Ghulam Muhammad (then deputy prime minister of J&K) orchestrated a political coup against Prime Minister Sheikh Muhammad Abdullah in 1953, the portfolio of the police/home department was never allocated to any minister and always remained with the prime minister, and later the chief minister, of the state. J&K had its own prime minister until 1965.
If sources are to be believed, the BJP had set its sight on controlling J&K’s home department after the 2016 unrest – when a narrative emerged that J&K’s elected governments have been lenient towards anti-national elements and stone-pelters.
In 2019, New Delhi took over the power of legislating on J&K police through the J&K Reorganisation Act. “Subject to the provisions of this Act, the Legislative Assembly may make laws for the whole or any part of the Union territory of Jammu and Kashmir with respect to any of the matters enumerated in the State List except the subjects mentioned at entries 1 and 2, namely “Public Order” and “Police” respectively or the Concurrent List in the Seventh Schedule to the Constitution of India in so far as any such matter is applicable in relation to the Union territories,” section 28 of the law partitioning J&K into two UTs says.
In follow-up to these statutory changes, the Union government defined functions and powers to be exercised by Lieutenant Governor vis-à-vis police through “Transaction of Business of the Government of Union territory of Jammu and Kashmir Rules, 2019,” notified on August 27, 2020.
Further tightening its grip on the UT’s home department, the Union home ministry, in February this year, amended the business rules, mandating that LG of J&K shall make a prior reference to it regarding the appointment of UT’s home secretary.
It amended these rules for the second time on July 12, 2024, giving the LG more control over the subjects of the UT’s home department. It even empowered the LG to decide on prison matters – something that is questionable given that prisons are a state subject under the Seventh Schedule.
‘Union government’s largesse for J&K’
Union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman termed the move as part of New Delhi’s largesse for J&K to correct its complex financial issue.
“It is observed that around 11% of budget of Jammu and Kashmir is used for Police. Such expenses on policing being unavoidable, leaves limited space for spending on development and welfare projects. I am happy to inform this august House that the Union Government has agreed to take the entire burden of budget of police from Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir,” she said in her J&K budget speech, which was tabled in the Parliament on July 23.
Replying to the opposition’s concerns, Sitharaman on Tuesday (July 31) said she wondered whether it was being done deliberately to create an atmosphere of doubt about India and its federal structure.
She reiterated that the Union government has taken over the burden of J&K police budget so that the J&K administration will have more money for developmental activities.
