Valley of discontent

Normalcy is elusive even a month after Article 370 decision

It has been one month since the government fulfilled a key agenda of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) by abolishing Jammu & Kashmir’s (J&K’s) special status by reading down Article 370 of the Constitution and bifurcating it into two Union Territories of J&K and Ladakh. In that period, it is fair to say that there has been little sign of the peace and prosperity that the government had promised for the region as a result of these moves. On the contrary, the state continues to be under lockdown, with shortages of food and medicine, curfew, and a communication blackout in place and local leaders under house arrest. On September 4, Union Home Minister Amit Shah promised a group of sarpanches and local businesspeople that communications would be restored in 25 days and the state would pay local fruit growers insurance for their inability to sell their produce.

This is encouraging news, and it is true that the situation is transitory and final judgments on whether the government move will deliver the promised results must wait for normalcy to return. But it is unclear why it should require one more month to restore normalcy for a move that was deemed to be the best thing that happened to the Kashmiri people. In the month since, in fact, J&K bears little resemblance to the visions of sunlit uplands that Mr Shah outlined in his speech in the Rajya Sabha on August 5. The move has undeniably strengthened the BJP’s standing within its base in mainland India. In J&K, however, the Article 370 decision has been experienced as unending hardship and the arbitrary arrests of people, including minors, under a highly controversial Public Safety Act. Many of them have been spirited out of the state and incarcerated in jails elsewhere. The presence of the security forces — which has been a reality of the region for the past three decades — has compelled Kashmiris to stay away from schools and places of work even when curfew is lifted for some hours every day. It speaks volumes for the economic outlook of the state that youths from Muslim-dominated areas in the state are rushing to sign up in the army’s first recruitment drive since August 5. The much-vaunted “investor summit”, which was scheduled for October 31, has been indefinitely postponed, suggesting that the “development” that Mr Shah assured everyone is unlikely to materialise anytime soon.

It was also said that Article 370 was the root of terrorism in the state and the biggest hurdle to normalcy. Ironically, terrorism does not appear to have abated despite the heavy presence of the central security forces. Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s diplomatic offensive may have encouraged some prominent world leaders to view J&K as an internal matter but Pakistan appears not to have received that memo. The army is reporting that the Laskhar-e-Taiba appears to be pushing infiltrators into the Valley to carry out terrorist activities, just as it did in years gone by. In the one month since Article 370 became history, the new normal in J&K is little different from the old, in which terrorism remained a perennial threat. Therefore, it is important for the government to take the locals into its confidence and restore normalcy in the Valley. Continuing with the present situation will not only alienate the people of Kashmir but will also affect India’s international standing.