Srinagar, Sept. 28 -- There is something rather unusual about governance in Jammu and Kashmir today.

We have a Chief Minister. We have a Council of Ministers. We have departments headed by ministers. We have an Assembly debating legislation. We have budgets involving more than a lakh crore rupees. And we have government Bills being introduced and passed.

Yet we repeatedly hear about a government with virtually "no powers."

So perhaps the time has come to ask a simpler question: If Omar Abdullah has no powers, who exactly is governing Jammu and Kashmir?

Let one thing be stated at the outset. Jammu and Kashmir is a Union Territory, not a full-fledged state. Omar Abdullah does not possess all the powers enjoyed by the Chief Minister of a...