SOMETHING truly wonderful is happening in Kashmir, though generally people would not realise its merit so soon. After the abrogation of Special Status and formation of two Union Territories of Jammu&Kashmir and Ladakh, the people of the Kashmir region will start getting actually integrated with the people in the rest of the country, thanks to a new reality of all central laws getting applicable there in full measure. There will be no concessions and no segmentations, but there will be a law uniformly applicable to the rest of India. Thus, Kashmir -- the old Kashmir -- will experience what true integration and liberation could mean in a liberal democracy that was so assiduously kept away from the region for the past seventy-plus years.

 

The old process was dangerous, to say the least, as it disempowered the Kashmiris rather than empowering them and also protecting them from ‘outsider’ onslaughts. No Indian person from other parts of the country could have any business in Kashmir, nor could he own a property there. This segregation was an anathema to the idea of integration. And even though everubody realised that it was a negation of the concept of unity, the political class played things dirty and kept Kashmir almost as a museum of divisive elements.

 

All that will now change from now on. There will be no segregation of the Kashmiris, nor will there be any special preferences to them on account of differing legal structures and treatments. This was precisely the point made by the Government during the parliamentary debates on the issue. Sepaker after speaker harped on this very aspect time and again -- that Kashmir’s true integration with India will begin the moment a common law is applicable to it as that happens in the rest of the country.

 

To those who do not think deeply, this may not sound any different bell. But for those who have given a prayerful thought to the idea of integrity and unity of the people and the country, this very development would mark the beginning of a glorious chapter in India’s story of modern times.

 

More than a 100 central laws were not applicable to Jammu and Kashmir previously. Naturally, there was no redressal of people’s issues covered under those laws. The Kashmiris suffered on that count and there seemed no way out. That suffocation would now come to an end in the next sometime. Under a liberated legal regime, Jammu & Kashmir, and Ladakh will now flourish -- on par with other common Indian people. Commerce will flourish, giving the Kashmiris opportunities for jobs, better education since nationally recognised institutions would open their branches in both the new UTs. These are only the early possibilities which now can be imagined. Countless other avenues of national integration would open in Kashmir region soon, pushing the the two UTs up on the developmental and growth ladders. When the full flow of genuine and apolotical development will begin, the two new entities will garner great advantages for themselves and their peoples.

 

There is little doubt that the actual transformation of J&K and Ladakh may take another quarter of a century to materialise fully. The process may get complicated due to some political elementrs wanting to disrupt the process of reconstruction. And during this intervning time, the Government will have to endure the trauma of reform as massive and momentous as the abrogation of Article 370 and Article 35A in Kashmir, the trauma of having to convince the common people of the benefits available to them, the difficulty in outsmarting divisive politics which many political parties may foster. But there is little doubt that eventually, things would get sorted out in a desirable manner.