On his first visit to Jammu and Kashmir after the state’s special status was abolished and bifurcated into two union territories, Union Home Minister Amit Shah participated in several “outreach” programmes. But these events and the visit overall have raised further questions about the government’s long-term plan for the former state. Over the course of three days, it was the limit of a seemingly disconnected take on the show. I have come here to be friends with the youth of Kashmir. Join hands with Modi ji and Government of India and be a partner in the journey to take Kashmir forward. But friendships can hardly be forged or coerced in an environment where the state administers repressive laws and mass arrests, and takes away people’s rights to the Internet. Shah asked those whose “partnership” he tried to swallow as “bitter pills” of the underprivileged and the heavy use of state power that had saved lives. But the slap of cases under the harsh UAPA on students at a medical college for allegedly waving Pakistan’s flag after a cricket victory is another example of the ruling establishment’s reaction that is only likely to deepen the cynicism on the ground.
The numerous security reviews that Shah chaired during the visit were evidence of the challenges in Kashmir, dismissing claims by him and other ministers that “terrorism ended” on August 5, 2019. The stone-pelting may have disappeared and there may have been fewer “encounters”. “Now, but the recruitment of militants is on, and they have changed their ways. Pistol killings of civilians by “hybrid” militants in the Valley this month and prolonged standing by terrorists in Jammu’s border district of Poonch are indicators that can only be ignored at the risk of the nation.
The Home Minister also hit back at the “three families that were looted and ruined in Jammu and Kashmir”. But the question is, why were the same families and the parties associated with them considered so important that no one, except the Prime Minister, invited them to Delhi for talks in June? Even though it was for the limited purpose of obtaining their consent for the ongoing delimitation exercise, it was an acknowledgment that without them, there could be no viable political process in the state. Plans to replace them with new or specially reared politicians and parties have not progressed – elected members of district development councils are confined to hotel rooms for their own safety. The absence of mainstream politicians and political parties from the public life of Jammu and Kashmir has been acutely felt since August 5, 2019. There is no option to hold elections without delay. But if the practice is to be legitimized, it has to involve everyone, including the “families of three”. First and foremost, the government needs to be transparent about the rationale for its chronology of “elections first, then statehood”.
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