In the aftermath of an abrupt and unprecedented rise in the targeted killings of religious minorities and non-Kashmiri migrant class living and working in Kashmir came the Union Home Minister Amit Shah’s significant three-day visit to the union territory of Jammu and Kashmir late last month.
Apart from the expected sounding of the J&K assembly elections bugle, one of the biggest anticipations from Shah’s visit to the UT was the laying of a fresh blueprint aimed at improving the security situation for the people of Kashmir, especially the non-muslims and the regional leaders and workers of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in J&K who are constantly on the terror radar because of their nationalistic credentials.
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Specifically from the perspective of the Kashmiri Pandits (KPs) based in the valley, the recent cold-blooded killing of Makhan Lal Bindroo, a prominent KP who continued living in Kashmir despite the forced mass exodus of KPs back in the 90s, there has been immense resentment and dejection within the Pandit community, and rightly so. The current volatile scenario, therefore, puts the onus more strongly than ever on the Modi government, the present J&K administration and even the state leadership of the BJP to put a foolproof mechanism in place for the uprooting of the Pakistan sponsored terror machinery operating in the valley that has found a renewed mojo in targeting minorities and nationalists.
Notably, this was Shah’s first visit to J&K since the historic date of August 5, 2019, when Article 370 was abrogated and the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir was bifurcated into two union territories - J&K and Ladakh. Several union ministers have frequented the UT in recent weeks as part of a wider outreach programme and as a confidence-building measure towards the people of Kashmir. This exercise comes while the delimitation process to redraw the boundaries of J&K’s electoral constituencies is underway with the aim of bringing political parity between the two divisions, Jammu and Kashmir - the absence of which remained a gigantic political error that marred the fortunes of J&K for years.
However, the Gupkar alliance spearheaded by the Abdullahs and Mehbooba Mufti, along with their echoers in New Delhi in the form of the united opposition led by the Congress party and the pseudo-liberal Lutyens media, downplaying the significance of Shah’s visit and being persistent in their criticism of the scrapping of J&K’s special status is a conspicuous sign of their desperation. The fact of the matter is that the lobby has been called out on more occasions than one for their duplicitous agenda surrounding J&K politics. While addressing the public in Jammu and in the valley, Shah minced no words and launched a scathing attack on what he termed as the “three families” who had been playing with the sentiments of the people of J&K for decades in order to cater to their vested political interests.
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Lobby’s frustration
What irks the lobby no end is the indisputable reality that the Modi government, by virtue of the dumping of Article 370, has been able to settle the debate once and for all on what the pro-Pakistan voices in Kashmir deem as an automatic “right to separatism”. This has come as a body blow to the National Conference (NC), the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) and the Hurriyat, who have lost their charisma and relevance a great deal in the current scheme of things. Hence the only recourse for these so-called stakeholders is to sell the same tattered theory as they did in the pre-Article 370 revocation era which claims that J&K remains to be a contentious political issue demanding resolution through a dialogue with Pakistan.
However, Shah made it abundantly clear during his visit, as has been the permanent formal stand of the Centre, that J&K’s integration with India is absolute and there is no question whatsoever of holding talks with Pakistan in the wake of constant provocation by the terror-harbouring neighbour.
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On the other hand, the Home Minister’s reaching out to the youth of Kashmir is a clear-cut reiteration of the Modi government’s commitment to serving as an administration dedicated to the cause of the people of Jammu and Kashmir. In effect, it also establishes that the Centre has no intention of following an absurd appeasement policy with regard to the political leaders from the valley, unlike the previous non-BJP union governments. The Modi government is solely focused on following a single-point approach of a direct government-people connection in J&K, thereby further denting the already diminishing supremacy of the Abdullah-Mufti era.
Addressing the big concern
As mentioned in the initial part of this piece, the palpable concern that was probably one of the defining factors for Shah’s J&K tour was to address the worrying security condition of non-muslim minorities and migrant non-Kashmiris in the valley. Almost a dozen civilians including those from the Kashmiri Pandit and Sikh community, daily wagers from Bihar, among others, have been killed in recent weeks by Pakistan sponsored terror groups functioning in Kashmir.
Moreover, Pakistan has escalated its aggression lately along the border areas leading to the death of several Indian Army soldiers. According to the intelligence sources, there has been marked a rise in cross-border infiltration throughout the summer with terrorists, who are believed to have operated alongside Taliban fighters in Afghanistan, working with a nuanced modus operandi to unleash a fresh wave of terror in Kashmir that targets civilians.
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To counter the alarming security menace in Kashmir, the Government of India has put its foot on the gas. The Ministry of Home Affairs has reportedly engaged officials from IB, RAW and NIA to oversee the building of a fortified security mechanism in the region. The J&K police have listed names of overt anti-national elements who will be at the receiving end of UAPA or PSA as part of a comprehensive clean up process in Kashmir.
As the time for assembly polls in J&K draws closer, it is imperative that the Government of India does everything in its power to avert the threat of life that looms over minorities, non-Kashmiris and nationalists in the valley. Fair to say that the GOI has taken it up as a top priority issue and tackling it head-on.
