Srinagar, Aug. 8 -- By Lt Gen. R. S. Reen

The monsoon hits Jammu & Kashmir the same way it always does.

Clouds gather over the Pir Panjal, a cloudburst tears open a hillside, and within hours the valley becomes a scene of ruin.

Homes standing for generations collapse into mud. Cars get pulled off roads and smashed against rocks. Officials count bodies, open relief camps, and hand out promises of land for new houses.

A week later, the cameras leave, the bureaucracy exhales, and residents are told to hold on for a better future, one that supposedly hinges on Delhi finally settling the union territory's constitutional status.

Call this what it is: not a weather emergency but a failure of engineering standards, sustained by decades of ad...