"Modi Govt will have to work on the embrace of competition" :::: Ladakh Violence : Of course Govt has also blamed 'foreign funding' ... but the big threat comes from within

 Of course Manipur clashes had happened in 2023 and its impact is still being felt. But Ladakh violence again took people by surprise. 

But One should keep getting surprised all the time. Conflict Resolution or handling things in advance are linked to good intelligence. If Corruption menace had hit the Manmohan Singh regime on multiple fronts; with the Modi Govt -- right from beginning various violence incidents and protest have hit it hard. 

Prime Minister Narendra Modi is fortunate to get away with all that generally people of India appreciate his and his government's sincerity. They also give Modi a benefit of doubt that most of these protests - if not all - are being organised by elements who are inherently part of Sickularism or the big army of Sickularism. 

Here the Prime Minister's credibility is in competition with the 'zero credibility' of leaders such as Rahul Gandhi and his party Congress and their pro-Left Liberal antagonism tilt. In fact, Arvind Kejriwal did not mind saying that he knows how to thrive with anarchy as a political tool. The Congress party's blatantly pro-marginalised ideology wise tilt is proving an asset for the BJP.

The grand old party is never realising that it has always been a mainstream party before 2014. 

In any case. the issue at debate this time is 'challenges' like Ladakh violence.

The Modi Govt will have to work on two themes -

-- the embrace of competition (the rivalry canvass has grown manifold)

-- and Disruptive Transition (= which is now flavour of the season in South Asian context and also globally)

  

True 'Intelligence failure' is very easy and soft target to hit out.  Of course, these issues also ought to be looked into.

However, when it comes to refined mechanisms of governance - there is a need to take a closer look at the Conflict Resolution process in north east of India. The fact of the matter is this argument will not be palatable to many in our perceived 'national mainstream' especially in North India.

As someone who has followed north east of India much more sincerely than the rest of India - notwithstanding the inherent complexities about the region - I can perhaps claim that -- 

-The Conflict Resolution process in North East of India is way ahead of similar models (or efforts) in other theatres of internal security.   

Thus the centre can look into this aspect more closely and try to rework some of the internal dynamisms of internal security. In broad sense another argument will be that the strong 'Resilience' of the Central government at such challenging situations will be guided by a few odd trends. First is -- Demography.

India's demographic dividend is the economic growth potential arising from its large, working-age population, which began around 2011 and is expected to last until 2055, with peaks in 2041. 

This period is characterized by a declining dependency ratio due to falling fertility and a growing workforce. However, capitalizing on this opportunity requires addressing challenges like the skill gap between education and employability, creating sufficient jobs in the formal sector, tackling informal labor, and empowering women in the workforce.  

From the sidelines, Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah said something about the violence in Ladakh. He said:

“Ladakh wasn’t even promised Statehood, they celebrated UT status in 2019 & they feel betrayed & angry".

The crux of the issue is the 'unrest stems' from frustrations over lack of statehood and local governance since Ladakh became a Union Territory in 2019. On Aug 5th, 2019 as the Article 370 was abrogated; the Modi Govt had bifurcated Jammu and Kashmir and made Ladakh a union territory without legislature. 

It is this over 'centralised' governance mechanism that seems to be working in people's mind.   

In the north east; authorities in the Union Home Ministry are engaged in talks with various insurgent groups and the social pressure groups in multiple states. In states like Nagaland and Manipur; the Govt of India's engagements are on multiple fronts within. 

But importantly, there is a system at play - one can make out from outside governance apparatus.   

Side by side these talks and parleys; there is also a mechanism for "effective assessment of the pulse" of the people. 

On day to day functioning; even those individuals involved in the game including civil, police and central security forces may not realise their own roles. But the impact of their efforts is huge and thankless. Moreover, there is another key element which again may look very small and insignificant.

It is the fact that the common faceless people in north east including in insurgency-stricken (groundswell of anti-India propaganda at times); people also repose huge trust in the Govt of India. Moreover, in a state called Arunachal Pradesh -- this patriotic element is at an exemplary level. 

In a number of cases, in the north east -- public leaders will cooperate with central forces and also the Govt of India "to live up to our local expectations". In the process; the wrongdoers and saboteurs have been identified, isolated and even taken to task under the rule of law doctrine.

 

ends