Certified To Belong

Since coming up with the Jammu and Kashmir Grant of Domicile Certificate (Procedure) Rules, 2020, defining the procedure to obtain domicile in the Union territory, the J&K government has announced 10,000 vacancies and made domicile certificate a criterion for applicants. Permanent residents of the erstwhile State of J&K who were issued the Permanent Resident Certificate (PRC) before August 31, 2019, shall be eligible for receiving domicile certificates on the basis of the PRC alone. The government has set a 15-day deadline from the submission of application for local revenue officers to issue the certificate and would deduct Rs 50,000 from the officer’s salary as penalty in case of further delay.

Critics say the process for Kashmiris is similar to the contentious updating exercise of the National Register of Citizens. “The new regime of domicile rights strikes at the roots of the notion of who belongs to Kashmir,” says former J&K finance minister Haseeb Drabu. “The rules obliterate, through redefining, the ethnic conception of belonging that was sought to be protected by the domicile law in the first place. Unless there is some hidden agenda, it makes no sense to recruit tens of thousands to issue domicile certificates to those who already have a PRC. Those who have been living in Kashmir for 5,000 years are on the same footing as those seeking to acquire the domicile certificate now. Both have to prove it—erstwhile state subjects by submitting a PRC, and others by submitting a ration card. That a ‘state subject’ residing here for generations has to regain his ‘domicile’ is adding insult to injury. Does it not strike anyone in the governance system that the PRC should have been deemed to be a domicile certificate?”

J&K Lt Governor Girish Chandra Murmu, meanwhile, has been seeking public approval of the new domicile rules opposed by all political parties in J&K, barring the BJP. His office issues statements every day mentioning visits by people welcoming the new domicile rules, including former and serving top government officials. Besides children of J&K residents living outside J&K and West Pakistan refugees, the April 1 order has made eligible for domicile all those who have resided in J&K for 15 years, or studied for seven years and appeared in the Class 10th or 12th examination from an educational institution there. The order says children of central government officials, including officials of PSUs and banks, who have served in J&K for 10 years will also be eligible. Domicile will also be granted to all migrants and their children registered with the relief and rehabilitation commissioner.

When Jammu-based Panther’s Party leader Harsh Dev Singh warned that the domicile rules would open the floodgates of people to J&K, the BJP described such criticism as alarmist. “This will not add a large chunk of people to the J&K population,” says the BJP’s J&K president Ravinder Raina. “Instead, the new rules are inclusive of many sections within J&K who were being denied their fundamental rights, including the right of domicile. The order has by and large been welcomed by a large section of people.”

In Kashmir, both the People’s Democratic Party and the National Conference came out against the order. “Demographic change and disenfranchisement will further complicate the J&K issue, which has claimed thousands of lives. This will be resisted through all democratic peaceful means,” said the PDP in a statement.

“This is the first time in history that the Kashmiri identity is facing a real threat,” says political analyst Riyaz Ahmad. “This identity has survived 400 years under various brutal regimes—Mughals, Afghans, Sikhs, Dogras—because none of them tried to change the demographic profile of this place. But that is exactly what is being tried in democratic India.”

By Naseer Ganai in Srinagar