A few days ago, on August 5, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) held an impressive rally at the party headquarter in Srinagar to celebrate four years of the abrogation of Article 370 by Parliament. In the posh Jawahar Nagar area, the party function attracted hundreds of youths from across the Kashmir valley who celebrated the historic decision to fully integrate Jammu and Kashmir with the Union of India.
“We are thankful to Narendra Modi, the Prime Minister of India, for such a remarkable decision. We demand nothing except the lasting peace in the UT (Union Territory) so that we can ourselves build our economy to fight out unemployment,” said Shameema who has risen through the ranks of India’s largest political party despite having no political background.
Shameema believes that the historic decision has expanded the democratic and political space in the Union Territory and she is one among those who were inspired to join politics post Article 370.
“As a mother, I am concerned for the future and security of my children. When the BJP came into power and it showed zero tolerance towards terrorism that ensured the safety and security of our children, I decided to join the caravan of peace. As a mother I can’t be part of divisive and bloody politics,” she lashed out at the National Conference (NC) and People’s Democratic Party (PDP).
Fayaz Ahamd War travelled nearly 100 kilometers from North Kashmir’s Kupwara district to join the celebrations in Srinagar. He thanks God that Kashmir is rid of dynastic politics.
“These shameless politicians would even do politics on chicks. I was a die-hard worker of the National Conference but I realized they would keep us engaged in petty issues and never let us grow in party ranks,” he said, regretting having wasted so many years in a party that is deeply influenced by family politics.
War along with hundreds of other workers formally resigned from the National Conference a few years ago and have joined the BJP.
The celebrations of the BJP were not confined to Srinagar’s posh area only. Ever since Article 370 and 35A were abrogated, the people in the political space are thriving.
Senior BJP leader Surinder Ambardar, known to have an ideological base in the RSS, also held a well-attended political gathering at Dak Bungalow Sopore last month.
Sopore, home of late Syed Ali Shah Geelani who deserves much of the credit for promoting and advocating Pakistan’s secessionist ideology in Kashmir through both political and violent means, was known as the bastion of separatists.
As Ambardar, a Kashmiri Pandit who was forced to migrate from Kashmir in 1990’s, walked towards the dais, he requested the gathering to sing the national anthem before starting his speech. All the people stood up, sang the anthem and chanted ‘Bharat Mata Ki Jai’ slogans before getting back to their seats.
“I was a lifetime member of Jamat-e-Islami but over the years I have realized that we were taught wrong history and hatred towards the country. The constitution of my country gives me all the freedom I need to enjoy my personal life but wrong guidance and dictation had confined my own thinking and logic,” said Shafiq Ahmad, who attended the event.
Shafiq admitted that Jamat-e-Islami (Kashmir) is working on behalf of Pakistan and misleading the youth in the name of religion. He vowed to work towards integrating the misled youth into the mainstream. “The erstwhile state, which had earned a distinction for violence, is now becoming a symbol of peace and unity,” he said.
“The abrogation of Article 370 has defeated all these tactics and now there is hope for everyone in the decentralized democratic space that’s been extended to the common people by Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the years,” said Ambardar.
How did all this happen in the last four years and what has actually changed on the ground, given that people who promote Pakistan’s proxy war ideologically in Kashmir continue to stay in denial mode?
FIGHT AGAINST NARCO-TERROR
In the last three years, the schools in Kashmir are running without disruption. Earlier, the separatists would call for frequent closures of schools and businesses in Kashmir. This resulted in heavy losses to the local businesses and forcibly denied students their right to education. Due to forced closure of schools following separatists’ calls for shutdown, the students of Kashmir lost three academic years from 2016 to 2018 that eventually landed hundreds of youths into drug addiction.
The official survey estimates as many as 6 lakh youths in the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir are addicted to drugs. “It is a matter of deep concern for us as a society. I believe the number must be higher and we have in the last couple of years taken various measures to counter this threat. My hospital alone received over 10,000 patients influenced by drugs during the last one year,” said Dr Abdul Majid, HoD at Psychiatry department at SKIMS, Bemina.
Dr Mir Anayat, mental health expert, attributes this growing problem to the lawlessness of the last three decades. “Some people have used drugs as a war against the state and exploited our youth emotionally. You cannot exploit anyone emotionally until you snatch his/her logic and thinking, hence drugs were used as the weapon to accomplish that,” he said, indicating that our neighboring country is targeting the precious assets – the youth – of our country since it cannot afford a direct confrontation.”
Those were the days when violence used to be the norm and the separatists used every trick to instigate people against the nation. Over the last four years, there has not been a single protest or an incident of stone pelting
The Jammu Kashmir Police have identified potential routes of drug smuggling from across the border and in the last over six months have seized drugs worth Rs 11.8 crore and registered 276 cases under NDPS/PIT/PSA against the peddlers and suppliers. Most of the arrested peddlers hail from zero-line villages of North Kashmir – connected to Pakistan-occupied Jammu Kashmir (PoJK) – indicating how Pakistan is using local people to push the drug trade to keep terrorism alive. To control Pakistan-sponsored narco-terrorism, the police are planning to set up 26 border police posts in North Kashmir. “We see it as a new challenge from conventional terrorism. Narco terrorism is an emerging threat that poses a security challenge and can destabilize the economy. Over the last three decades, nobody focused on it. Now we have clear instructions from the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) to stop it in order to ensure lasting peace in the region,” said a senior police official in North Kashmir, wishing not to be named.
STABILIZING ECONOMY
In 2016, the economic survey of Jammu and Kashmir, tabled by then Finance Minister Haseeb Drabu in the Legislative Assembly, revealed that Jammu and Kashmir suffered massive losses to the tune of Rs 16,000 crore after separatists forced shutdown over the killing of terrorist Burhan Wani. “The scrapping of Internet services, mobile and phone services for long spells during the turmoil made communication in the state very difficult. Hartals, Bandhs, stone pelting, curfews and restrictions had immobilized the life in all the 10 districts of the valley, therefore incurring huge losses up to Rs 16,000 crores to the state’s economy,” the report has said.
Those were the days when violence used to be the norm and the separatists used every trick to instigate people against the nation.
Over the last four years, there has not been a single protest or an incident of stone pelting. Schools have not been closed for a single day.
As directed by the MHA, the zero tolerance towards terrorism, the effective counter insurgency methodology by security forces have begun to bear fruit. Terrorism has been crushed, though it is yet to be finished.
“We have knocked it down but it is not out completely,” said DGP Dilbagh Singh. “However, it will be finished soon.”
Not a single youth is coming out on the roads to protest or hurl stones. Rather, there are thousands of small ventures set up by the youth across Jammu and Kashmir through various government initiatives.
Following the smooth life post Article 370, the economy of the UT is stabilizing. Around Rs 22,000-crore investment has been received by the Jammu Kashmir government from both local as well as international investors, creating 10,000 jobs in the private sector.
The government is expecting an investment of over Rs 66,000 crore in the near future following the reframing of industrial policy.
Finally, Jammu and Kashmir, especially the Kashmir valley (which suffered the worst impact of the separatist-terrorist nexus), has started marching towards progress, in step with the rest of India.
