In Jammu and Kashmir, BJP-PDP coalition ends an era of deception. Now it is time to talk about important things. The fractured nature of the polity revealed by the latest assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir has been rightly articulated in the “Agenda of the Alliance” agreed upon by the coalition partners, the BJP and the PDP. There seems to be a lot of common ground for the two parties in the coalition government when it comes to working towards the economic issues of Jammu and Kashmir.
The multi-facet economic issues have become more complex in the post-flood period. If left unaddressed, they could pose a danger to the overall economic stability of this state. To avert such a situation, the coalition government would have to work on three-pronged strategy aimed at bringing about radical reform in the public sector, underpinning of the social infrastructure and strengthening of the private business. The reform in the three sectors, which could ensure overall economic development of the state, is not an option but an imperative.
The goals in the private sector cannot be achieved fully unless the public and social sectors prove complementary to the latter. Not wholly, unlike other backward states, the problem with the Jammu & Kashmir state is that a largely unproductive public system is working like a ferocious circle strangling chances of recovery and growth in non-public sectors.
While the unproductive resource utilisation in the public sector results in continued backwardness in the social sector, the latter affects the growth in the private sector. The underdevelopment of the power sector which falls under the direct control of the government is one major reason affecting the economic and financial health of the public sector so much so that it leaves the state with little resource to spend on the social infrastructure.
Thankfully, the development agenda of the Coalition government seems to have made a good effort to identify the nub of problem in its ‘development agenda’ which says that the state government will work with the union government to address the real source of J&K fiscal problem and pave way for working the state fiscally autonomous by exploring modalities for transfer of Dulhasti and Uri Hydro power project to J&K. Several other goals identified in the agenda, if achieved, would hopefully rid this state of its economic and developmental backwardness. Both the parties in Coalition need to work together to achieve this development agenda.