Letter to BS: Withdrawal of J&K's special status is not a way to win trust

Winning the hearts and minds of Kashmiris alone will facilitate their integration into India

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s post-Article 370 abrogation TV address to the nation has come in for fulsome praise from many people as well as large sections of the media because he reached out to the people of Kashmir with a slew of promises and did not openly demonstrate triumphalism. But the moot question is whether his promises of early polls, restoration of statehood, benefits to government employees on par with their counterparts in other Union Territories, filling government job vacancies and investment will make up for what the people of Kashmir lost or were robbed of because of its earlier