J K News Today Essay
Today everyone is saying that Kashmir is back to normal – people are moving unhindered anywhere they choose to , public transport is on roads, shops are open for most part of the day, and there are enough signals that the timings would be stretched further into the late hours and the school kids would be back to the classrooms. It is real. It is the new reality that has dawned on the Valley.
This reality of normalcy is special as the doomsayers had predicted that the revocation pf the Article 370 that granted special status to former state of J&K would lead to bloodbath as the people will take to streets and clash with the forces . This did not happen. The whole thing and the aftermath of the repealing of Article 370 was calibrated by the Union Government , and the face of it was Union Home Minister Amit Shah .
Amit Shah had promised a new dawn to Jammu –Kashmir, and Ladakh that appeared on the geographical map of the country as the two Union Territories . Ladakh was normal from the word go , Jammu never fell prey to the machinations of the economy crippling designs of the others.
It was the Valley that came to attention of the international community for the shops were shut for quite a number of days before it shifted to early morning to half day, and now that has further increased the number of hours of opening of the shops , schools were shunned, but the examinations recorded 100 per cent attendance .
This period was a earning experience for the people of Kashmir . The lessons drawn were quite acute . They had become repulsive to the bloodbath , what they had experienced in 2008, 2010 and 2016. They were provoked to repeat that by the hostile forces from across the border. But they did not react in a violent manner .
Pakistan establishment, particularly Prime Minister Imran Khan, had made explosive speeches and asked the people of Kashmir to pick up guns against what he had called “ repression” and “ suppression of Kashmiris” . He was highly critical of India and tried to legitimize the violence and the bloody ways . But Kashmiris did not fall prey to these machinations.
Pakistan also employed its agents to intimidate the people by using the posters to threaten them, shot dead those associated with apple trade and other economic activities . So this must have helped Kashmiris to understand that who was their friend or foe .
This new reality is a result of the consistent and persistent efforts of the Centre to reach out to the people . The definition of the reaching out acquired a new meaning when the forces were deployed in strength to check the forces of violence . It may be called as curbs, but when curbs are used to defeat the designs of the agents provocateurs , it is a reach out to the people. These measures saved the people from becoming cannon fodder of the agents of violence .Similar objectives were achieved by shutting down the internet. These curbs will also go once the things are promisingly positive .
Amit Shah’s plans have worked out , and the things are steady in J&K.
A word of caution here, the agents provocateurs who don’t like peace would attempt to do something destructive . The administration should be alert.
