Centre's abject failure in shepherding Jammu and Kashmir to normalcy

The Jammu and Kashmir government’s recent decision to expand the footprint of Village Defence Committees (VDCs) to several additional districts of the Union Territory (UT), including those along the international border, while simultaneously upgrading weapons issued to them, is an unmitigated indication of the Centre’s abject failure in shepherding the region to normalcy.

Among others, this was one of the several stated objectives behind the August 2019 decision to abrogate Article 370. But with no end to terrorist violence, the UT administration, led by Lt Governor Manoj Sinha, has revived the VDCs, although several accusations dogged this force in the past.

A batch of ex-servicemen who were chosen to act as a civilian defence force in a Rajouri village, were handed over self-loading rifles (SLRs), several notches more potent than the archaic .303 rifles issued to VDCs in the past.

The development, along with several other straws in the wind, suggests that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has an eye on holding the first Assembly elections in the newly-carved UT on a plank that is quintessentially polarising in nature.

There is no escaping this conclusion because the VDCs, although they have now been renamed as Village Defence Guards (VDGs), have a controversial history in the course of which they have been accused of wanton human rights violation and committing crimes.

Also read: J&K: Fear grips Dangri village, terror strike opens two-decade old wounds

From the time these were established in the early 1990s, VDCs often acted as unrestrained militia and their violent actions were undertaken regularly against the innocent with the intention of pandering to insecurities of local Hindu population.

Increase in terrorist activities: The twin Rajouri terror attack

The expansion of the VDC network comes in the wake of the recent twin Rajouri terror attack in the Jammu region in which seven people, including two children, were killed and 14 injured. The attack took place when terrorists attacked the village of Dhangri on January 1-2 when most people were still rejoicing the advent of the New Year.

The formation of a VDC in Rajouri district, on the lines of those that were previously set up in Doda district, was personally announced by Sinha. This is a telling reflection on the incapacity of the administration and security forces to prevent terrorist strikes in the Jammu region too.

This is the first time that the rechristened VDCs were provided with sophisticated rifles anywhere in the Jammu region. This decision reveals the expansion of the terrorists’ area of operation, especially in this region. It is also suggestive that the government now wants this force, which is more often than not short in being accountable, to play a wider role.

Furthermore, the decision to back up the police and other security agencies with a civilian force exposes the insufficient presence of ‘regular’ security personnel, as well as acts as a pointer to an exponential rise in the strength of terrorist organisations.

Also read: Rajouri killings: Increased terrorist activity in Jammu region cause of concern

Will VDGs serve the purpose?

Appallingly, in a region which has been beset by heightened terrorist activity for the past two years, the decision to establish the VDCs, renamed into VDGs, was taken in March 2022 at the behest of local BJP leaders.

However, despite the decision being taken formally, it appears now that the VDGs were either spread too thin or there were wide gaps in their deployment, making it necessary to establish more teams of the same force.

The moot point is whether the VDGs would serve the purpose or if they will fail in performing their primary task and degenerate into an armed force with questionable motives and objectives, as in the past.

History of VDCs

VDCs in the Jammu region were established in 1993 in the wake of the killings of 13 Hindus in Kishtwar. Senior BJP leadership of that time, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, Lal Krishna Advani and Murli Manohar Joshi, were at the forefront to demand the formation of VDCs in the Jammu region, especially to provide protection to Hindus.

Coming in the wake of the drive to force Kashmiri Pandits out of the Kashmir Valley, the PV Narasimha Rao government at the Centre accepted the demand as a way to appease the anger among Hindus in the region.

At that time, too, it was evident that VDCs would contribute little towards eliminating terrorism from the region. The measly financial package for members of the VDCs was a significant reason behind VDCs turning into rogue militia bands.

Also read: J&K: Day after Rajouri attack, blast kills child, injures 4 in same village

Despite the fact that the VDCs did not reduce terrorist activities, the number of people enlisted in these units swelled. Simultaneously, the number of charges of human rights violation and even criminal cases registered against these men increased significantly.

In June 2016, the state government made a series of worrying disclosures: 27,924 “volunteers” were serving in 4,248 VDCs across the state without taking any remuneration as their engagement was voluntary; police had till then registered 221 cases against them, including 23 murders, seven rapes, 15 cases of rioting, three cases under Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act and 169 other cases – and in 205 of these cases chargesheets had been filed.

There were also reports that as a semblance of normalcy had returned towards the end of the first decade of this century, the personnel of VDCs developed a sense of becoming irrelevant. To maximise their gains from their involvement, there were several allegations and accusations of VDC members selling their weapons.

There is no information of developments between the admissions made by the PDP-BJP state government in 2016 and the revival of VDCs as VDGs in March 2022. The revival of the militia force contradicted the Centre’s claims of normalcy in the UT. The moot question is if these enlisted groups failed to contain terrorism in the previous years, what is the purpose of not just reviving these units but also expanding their footprint?

Deepening the wedge between two communities

In fact, the VDCs have mainly deepened the wedge between the two communities in the erstwhile state since their inception three decades ago. Because questions remain regarding the utility of the militia force of former servicemen and ex-policemen along with a sprinkling of local youth, their revival at this stage suggests that the government wishes them to act as a leveraging force at a time when Assembly elections appear imminent this year.

That there was a political objective behind the revival of the VDCs as VDGs last March becomes clear from the fact that the Union government announced the intention to reconstitute these units a day after Jammu BJP leaders called on home minister Amit Shah and made the demand last year.

Earlier in 2019, after the Centre decided to establish new VDCs in Kishtwar, the PDP had accused the scheme was being clandestinely used to arm RSS volunteers. The accusation was never proven but more for want of investigation and not because of lack of evidence.

The latest decision to upgrade the weapons of those enlisted into NDGs is particularly worrisome in a possible election year, as issues of accountability of VDG members arose in the past, even though these personnel have to report to senior police officers in the district.

VDGs are clearly nothing new, although the J&K administration led by Sinha is attempting to present them as such. Efforts to give a new garb to an old system make it amply clear that the Centre’s efforts at containing terrorism have come to naught and now the effort is to harness the political support of a section of people of the Jammu region.

(The writer is an NCR-based author and journalist. He tweets at @NilanjanUdwin)

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