By Deepika Bhan
As Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s BJP government marked its nine years at the Centre, the situation in Jammu and Kashmir is one of its best highlights, too visible to be brushed under the carpet.
A place which was synonymous with stone-throwing mobs, boycott calls and blazing guns, is today thriving with tourists and cheers for successful young people excelling in sports, education and business.
No one could have ever believed a few years ago that the representatives of the world’s powerful G20 countries would descend on the valley and hold deliberations.
The successful G20 tourism meeting was one of the best endorsements for the current dispensation at the Centre. It took place without a murmur from any so-called separatist outfit.
No one could have also believed that the crackdown on Yasin Malik, chief of outlawed Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF), would be taken normally in the valley.
When the NIA sought the death penalty for him and compared him with slain Al Qaeda chief Osama Bin Laden, there were no drum beaters to raise emotions for him, no shutdown calls or stone throwing. Yasin Malik is no longer the ‘icon’ to be followed. He is slowly getting lost in the bad chapters of history, much like Syed Ali Geelani, who died lonely, and his other pro-Pakistan followers now languishing in jails.
Slowly rising are local boys and girls who are excelling in various competitive exams, sports or business ventures. This year 16 candidates from Jammu and Kashmir cracked the prestigious Civil Services examination.
Waseem Ahmad Bhat, a resident of Bragram village in south Kashmir’s Anantnag district, was the topper from the UT and secured the seventh rank nationally.
There are several success stories from Kashmir today which could not have been possible if the violence and unsettled conditions had prevailed.
The valley is attracting a record number of tourists and is also getting investments from both within and outside the country.
Today’s Kashmir indeed is the Centre’s one of best showcases, but a lot is still pending.
The return of peace and normality to Jammu and Kashmir is a reminder that steps need to be taken to restore the Assembly. The historic DDC and panchayat elections showed that the government believes in taking democracy to the grassroots level in the UT, which was not the case earlier.
The exercise, which was regarded as a sort of mini-Assembly election and involved the entire rural population, was a move to empower democratic institutions at the grassroots and provide a platform for the voice of the people of J&K.
The Centre has also successfully carried out the delimitation process. Most election-related processes, including rationalisation of polling stations according to the delimitation exercise and summary revision of the rolls, have been completed.
With most things in place, the question being asked is when will the Assembly be revived and elections held.
J&K has been under President’s Rule since December 19, 2018. The last Assembly election in the erstwhile state was held in November 2014.
Last year, on June 24, the Centre invited and met the representatives of the political parties of J&K. A favourable outcome was anticipated, but no decisions were taken subsequently. The sarpanches and the DDCs are functioning, but the Assembly continues to be shut.
June will mark the completion of five years since the elected government fell. Opposition leaders allege that the BJP, which is in power at the Centre, lacks the courage to face voters in J&K.
The BJP, on its part, has been blaming the three political dynasties of looting the resources of J&K over the decades and bringing misery to the people of J&K. Its effort is to create a front that carries forward the Centre’s policies and leaves no room for any separatist tendency.
In Kashmir, many leaders are known to change the tone and tenor of their statements once they are in Srinagar. It’s here where governments at the Centre in the last seven decades have been left flummoxed. The present dispensation at the Centre clearly does not want a similar situation in Kashmir. It has therefore been trying to create groups and political fronts in the UT.
Even as the Centre repeatedly mulls over and then delaying the decision to hold Assembly elections, the return to statehood too seems to be in backburner. Union Home Minister Amit Shah on October 23, 2022, said Jammu and Kashmir’s statehood would be restored after the delimitation process and elections in the region are completed.
Restoration of the Assembly and the return to statehood may be the top demands of the political parties in the UT, but security and safety remain the foremost challenges for the government.
Overall security may have improved in the valley, but targeted killings are still happening. The cases have shown an upward trend, from 86 in 2015, which peaked at 206 in 2018. In 2019, 135 terrorist killings took place. After the abrogation of Article 370 in August 2019, however, no decline in such incidents has been recorded. In 2021, the number was 153; it was 151 in 2022.
The targeted killings of civilians have given way to the use of a new form of terrorism — ‘hybrid militancy’. Hybrid militants are unlisted members of terror groups but radicalised enough to carry out targeted killings.
After carrying out the targeted killing, the militant concerned resumes his day-to-day activity, instead of returning underground like his full-time counterparts. This type of terror is posing challenges to security forces, for hybrid militants are difficult to identify.
The return and rehabilitation of displaced Kashmiri Pandits is also among the pending tasks of the government. In fact, the government, despite making promises, has not been able to come out with a return and rehabilitation plan.
The community is also distraught as several the land and properties of several temples have been usurped and encroached upon in Kashmir. The Lieutenant Governor, Manoj Sinha, has ordered a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to probe the illegal lease and use of temple properties in Kashmir. The community’s hopes, though, are still not high, despite these measures.
The Modi-led dispensation has been trying to assuage the feelings of the people of the UT with a slew of development activities. It is also addressing propaganda unleashed by the Pakistan-China combine.
With the G20 meeting done and dusted in Srinagar, India has aggressively made its point on an international platform and has also created confidence internally.
Nonetheless, there are challenges confronting the government. The threats of radicalisation, hybrid militancy and drug abuse are among the major ones.
Prime Minister Modi took complete control of J&K almost four years ago when fear of diplomatic and political repercussions loomed large. Nothing happened. The government has worked hard on Kashmir and related national and international political developments. Restoring the Assembly and granting full statehood remain the final tests.
(Deepika Bhan can be contacted at deepika.b@ians.in)
–IANS
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