J K News Commentary
Six months down the line since its special status was revoked, Jammu and Kashmir is shaping its new identity. It has belied all fears that the people would rise in revolt against the decision . Instead, they have started understanding the virtues of the decision that everything has been done for the lasting good. They know that their generations would live in the competitive world, where their merit would have the fair chance to succeed. Not that the opportunities were not there earlier, but they were shackled by the political fantasies woven around them. In fact , that was a cage where they developed a narrow view of the world.
There is no point in recalling what was wrong with the old order, but when it comes to the brightness of the times ahead, it becomes a necessity to undertake the comparison. Earlier, when Jammu and Kashmir lived under the illusion of being privileged and enjoying all the rights as a special status state , the residents were ensnared in thinking that they are masters of their own destiny. This illusion was fed by the political rhetoric that they were superior to everyone else in the country , hence unchallenged in their own territory. This injected a false sense of not looking for opportunities outside J&K. It was more so in the Kashmir valley. The people in Jammu and Ladakh regions were discriminated against in all respects. Their education system was deliberately downgraded so that they could not access the opportunities for their qualifications and merit fell short of the requirement. As a result, the whole of J&K was denied the wider view of the world.
Union Home Minister Amit Shah corrected the historical wrong by scrapping highly discriminatory Article 370 that had erected artificial walls between the state and the rest of the country on August 5. It was not merely a legal issue that had been resolved, instead it broke all the walls that had prevented development and also snapped the emotional bonds . Absurdly serious differences were created on illogical basis. For example, J&K was fed with a damaging narrative that the rivers and waters running in the state were its own, it had the sole right on the natural resources. No thought was spared as to how much the country was doing for Kashmir . J&K was losing the national ideas and opportunities.
Not any more now. Past six months have shown that the country has embraced Kashmir in all resp and at the same time what more has happened is that all the opportunities are available to them. A new world has opened.
