NEW NARRATIVE
| Date :06-Aug-2019 |
EVEN as the nation celebrates scrapping of Special Status to Jammu and Kashmir and carving of two separate Union Territories out of the State, political shenanigans and dirty games will be played out there. For, the elements that ruled the roost in Kashmir for the past so many years will only step up their resistance to the new move by the Centre. It may not be wrong to expect many political parties in the State to come together to launch a massive political build-up to insist upon continuance of Article 370 of the Constitution of India. In all likelihood, their political games will become worse by the day at least for sometime.
That they will not succeed since the Centre is alert, is only one part of the story. Despite all the facts having been marshalled well by the Government, efforts to kick up political unrest may prove to be rather tough to handle at least for sometime. No matter all that, it must be said that the Centre has moved decisively, and the step may endanger political existence of quite a few political families in Jammu and Kashmir. For seemingly endless years, Kashmir’s politics was filled with anti-national filth. Much of the political argument was based on threats of disturbance in the State if the Centre made a move.
And even as this political discourse dominated the course, the Centre kept pumping into the State resources of mind-boggling proportions. By one loose marker, if the Government spent about Rs. 11,00 per person in India, it spent Rs. 6-7,000 in Kashmir. There was no component of accountability on the spending in Kashmir and no channel available to seek justice from central institutions such as Election Commission. People’s Representatives were ‘selected’ in big numbers rather than ‘elected’. And all this suited the few political families in the State, like the Abdullah family or the Mufti family, for example. They ruled the State no matter who actually occupied the chair.
And in order to be able to do that without hindrance, they built a political narrative tinged by fear that they ramped up with the help of separatist and terrorist elements. These political elements also built a fake human rights narrative that fooled the world for a while. They kept accusing the Armed Forces of violating human rights, but kept unleashing a reign of terror on the common people while the Centre just watched from its cosy perch in New Delhi. The climax of all this reached ugly levels when the Pandit community was physically hounded out of its homes, pushing those people to a refugee status seeking shelters in camps elsewhere in the country. In all these dirty activities, Pakistan was all eager to help not from the distance but from close quarters as its agents moved freely in the State of Jammu and Kashmir, perpetrating acts of wanton violence and promoting anti-national activities in the most shameless manner. Many political elements in the State sided with these separatist and terrorist forces and worked hard to convert Kashmir, described as India’s paradise, into a virtual hell.
For long years, this narrative ruled the roost, until the emergence of Mr. Narendra Modi as national leader. What is now happening in Kashmir -- the scrapping of Article 370 of the Constitution, the bifurcation of the State into two Union Territories -- is the outcome of the resoluteness of the central leadership. By any standard, this was what the nation waited for all these years. In the next some time, no matter the resistance from political elements, Kashmir’s narrative will change altogether, making way for it to get integrated fully with the rest of the country. It may be a long haul, though. Yet, the sense of determination displayed by the Modi Government will help the country tide over the opposition. This very feeling is so endearing!