M K Venu, whose Twitter profile goes as Founding Editor of thewire.in former Executive Editor of The Hindu, Managing Editor of Financial Express, sceptic but optimist, has tweeted that Amit Shah is wrong when he claims that Article 370 deprived Kashmir development as the state is better than ‘cow belt states’. “Amit Shah says Art 370 deprived Kashmir of development. But on many parameters like per capita income, employment, literacy, agriculture distress (no farm suicides in J&K), Kashmir better than many cow belt states, some ruled long by BJP,” tweeted Shah.
Amit Shah says Art 370 deprived Kashmir of development. But on many parameters like per capita income, employment, literacy, agriculture distress( no farm suicides in J&K), Kashmir better than many cow belt states, some ruled long by BJP.
— M K Venu (@mkvenu1) August 6, 2019
Rukmini S, a Chennai based data journalist who regularly writes for The Hindu, HuffPost, Scroll, and ThePrint published an article along the same lines with the title ‘Data doesn’t support Amit Shah’s claim that Article 370 deprived J&K of development.’ “Despite being ruled by BJP for the longest time, Hindi belt states lag far behind Jammu & Kashmir on education and various other indicators,” wrote Rukmini S in the article.
The writer wrote an article along similar lines on March 1, 2019, when Raghuram Rajan the liberal icon and former governor of RBI had claimed the economic condition is very poor and Kashmiri youth is frustrated. “Before calling economic condition responsible for the alienation of Kashmiri youth, Raghuram Rajan needs a lesson in some hard data. Overall the state of health, education and other socio-economic condition of Jammu & Kashmir is better than many other well-off states of the country,” wrote this writer.
The full article is available on the following link:
The state of Jammu & Kashmir is better off than many North Indian states, there is no doubt about that. But we need to examine why the state is better off and what are the public finances.
So, I had written another article almost 5 months ago on March 1, 2019, with the title ‘Kashmir: Most pampered of all states in India’, the basic argument of this article was that Jammu & Kashmir gets most of its revenue from central government.
The full article is available on the following link:
The socio-economic condition of Jammu & Kashmir is better than many other well-off states of the country but the more important fact is that much of the money for this expenditure is coming from the pocket of the central government. Jammu & Kashmir is one of the most pampered states of the country with 73.6 percent of the state’s total revenue from central government while the state generates only 26 percent of total revenue.
The total revenue receipts of the state for the fiscal year 2018-19 is 64,269 crore rupees. Out of this revenue, the state’s own taxes (11,194 crore rupees) and non-taxes (5,761 crore rupees) are estimated at 16,955 crore rupees. The total grants from central government to the state is 34,330 crore rupees and its share in central taxes is 12,984 crore rupees. This means in the fiscal year of 2018-19, the state is expected to get 47,314 crore rupees from central government. This means 73.6 percent of the state’s total revenue comes from central government while the state generates only 26 percent of total revenue.
The central government is going to transfer 39,430 rupees per person to the state during 2018-19 only through grants and devolution of taxes. This is in addition to railway, roads, and tourism and power projects by the central government in the state. The infrastructure created by the armed forces for their own movement comes as extra. There are more than 4,70,000 security force personals deployed in the state of Jammu and Kashmir which adds to its consumer base for the locally manufactured products. As GST is a consumption-driven indirect tax, the consumption by four lakh and seventy thousand security forces personnel helps in the state’s GST collection.
As per an article published by The Hindu on July 24 written by TCA Sharad Raghavan, J&K gets 10% of central funds with only 1% of the population.
Therefore while it is true that the state of Jammu & Kashmir is better developed that many North Indian states, the other side of the story is that this development is due to funds given by the central government and not due to efficient exploitation of resources and good governance by Kashmiri politicians. The left-liberal media establishment and pro-Congress journalists like M K Venu chose to hide the other side of the story to peddle a particular narrative.