Deployment of additional 1,000 companies of CAPF has scared J&K people: Sajad Lone

Former minister and People's Conference chairman Sajad Gani Lone Saturday said the Centre's decision to deploy additional 100 companies of Central Armed Police Force (CAPF) to Jammu and Kashmir has "created scare and panic" among the people.

"The news about deployment of troops has created scare and panic among the people. Nobody seems to have the remotest idea of what is in the offing. The signs are ominous and rumour mills are rife with suggestions that the special identity of the Kashmiri people may be under attack," Lone said in a statement here.

The former minister said the rumours of tinkering with Article 35-A, dealing with the special rights of the citizens of Jammu and Kashmir, were spreading fast and there is no reaction from the state or the Central governments.

"If the government of the day indeed has any such intentions, it would be tantamount to stretching adventurism to unacceptable limits," he said.

The conference chairman said he failed to understand why Kashmiri people were "being provoked and incited".

"Kashmir is a tiny part nestled in a remote corner mired in its own problems; yet current day nationalism seems to be defined by the level of vile, hatred and contempt for Kashmiri people.

"The TV channels in a country as big as India seem to be dependent on abuses hurled at Kashmiri people for their advertisement revenue. This truly is a sorry state of affairs and is moving towards a case of chronic majoritarian superiority syndrome," he said.

Lone said Kashmiri people have been "subjected to unimaginable atrocities" from all sides and while they are desperate to move on in their life, "New Delhi seems intent on goading them".

"It is like one billion people descending upon a few million Kashmiris, boasting of teaching them a lesson. This behaviour certainly does not depict valour, rather it reeks of cowardice. Ironically, it is not the billion people who want to thrust their definition of Indianness on the people of Kashmir, but some experimentalists, who are not yet tired of fatal experimentations," he said.

He said there is a certain historicity associated with the special status of Jammu and Kashmir as it is embedded with trust and dignity and reneging on such promises would only "further the alienation and mistrust towards Delhi".

The PC chairman said the political landscape of Kashmir has a clear demarcation -- those who accept the Indian constitution and believe their destiny is with India and those who do not accept the Indian constitution and believe their destiny lies elsewhere.

"Any adventurism will erode the credibility of those who believe in the concept of India. This adventurism will mean an investment in future for decades of violence and contempt for those who believe in Indianness," he said.