Opinion: 4 Years Without Article 370 And Kashmir’s Transformation
On 5 August 2019, by abrogating Article 370 and 35A and bifurcating Jammu and Kashmir into two Union Territories, the Modi government let the world know “impossible is nothing” was not just a catchy tagline. However, deep down, the ruling establishment knew the task was only half done. There were many miles to go.
The government had taken adequate measures to overcome any challenge – regional, national and international, particularly with relation to the two hostile neighbours. The legal and constitutional integration of J&K had become total.
The biggest challenge now was the integration of people in Kashmir Valley with the rest of India.
For 70 years, people in the Valley were indoctrinated by regional and central leaders of various parties, except for the former Jan Sangh and the BJP. They were told that Article 370 was their armour against India, that they held special status because of protections granted under Article 370. Generations of people had developed this psyche of Kashmir versus India.
For those who cared to listen with an open mind about how discriminatory Article 370 was, even for the people of Jammu and Kashmir, benefiting only a handful and three modern day political dynasties in particular, Union Home Minister Amit Shah’s speeches in both houses were among the finest in parliament.
Shah was right. A famed political advisor to a past regime had once narrated to this writer how over the years, conflict politics in Kashmir had mushroomed into cottage, medium and large industries, domestically and internationally. Entrenched beneficiaries wouldn’t let that go at any cost, he had said.
How generations of Kashmiris were brainwashed and incited into picking up stones and guns was brilliantly explained recently by Shah Faisal, a well-known Kashmiri bureaucrat-turned-politician-turned-bureaucrat. He shared his personal experiences as a Kashmiri and as an officer of the state — how young boys of 9-10 years would pick up stones and sticks and enforce “curfew”, as directed by the masterminds. These kids would ask the elderly to show their ID cards and even attack them with sticks for violating “curfew”.