J K News Today
Jammu
Union Home Minister Amit Shah has told home truth to Kashmir’s traditional regional parties , which have made restoration of Article 370 as their political campaign to evoke the emotional sentiments , by questioning them about the relation with the now-abrogated constitutional provision and peace in the region battling terrorism for the past 32 years. There is absolutely no link between the Article 370’s existence and peace in the Valley . It is other way round , and that stands vindicated by the development and normalcy that has dawned in Jammu and Kashmir .
More than the substance and evidence offered by the comparative statistics of terror-related violence before and after the abrogation of Article 370 on August 5, 2019, the regional parties would find it hard to explain the linkage between peace and the constitutional provision restoration of which they are seeking .
Amit Shah , who gave a detailed picture of the emerging Kashmir , which some forces wanted to reverse to the 1990 , the year of start of high voltage violence in the Valley , after a spate of civilian killings in the Valley in October 2021, That’s the thing of the past. It has been ensured , as articulated by the Home Minister so eloquently that Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha has not only undertaken the development and making the system accessible to the people of J&K , but also contributed to an atmosphere of normalcy.
The constitutional provision that was done away with 28 months ago was no guarantee for peace in the region . The violence from 1989 to 2019 proved that , and by no stretch of imagination this could be compared to post abrogation of the constitutional provision. Comparing the terror-related violence between the two sets of periods, may offer some concrete evidence that how the things were then, and how these have changed now.
Amit Shah’s statement at the Hindustan Times Leadership Summit on December 4, 2021, not only had the statistics to substantiate his claim , more than that it is change in the mood of the people, who are looking forward to future of bright prospects . Terrorism and the violence generated by it is an enemy of peace . This punctures all hopes and moves to progress. That is how the story of Kashmir has been recorded in the history books. The real time horrors had visited Kashmir – close to a million people were displaced , and they had to migrate to the places they considered safe- though Kashmiri Pandits light comes in greater spot light because the way they had to leave their homes and hearths in 1990 , but also members of the majority community of Muslims, who wanted to live in peace and march with the times.
Those propagating, including leaders like Farooq Abdullah , who ruled the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir for more than a dozen years in different stretches from September 1982 to October 2002 , that the return of the Article 370 can restore peace in Kashmir , contradict their own point. His thesis all along had been , at least in the times when he was in power or could scent the power, after the return of his father Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah to power in February 1975 , that the accession of J&K was final, and irrevocable . The accession and the link between the Article 370 deserves a minute attention , and that will explain one thing for certain ; the accession had its rudiments and these were fulfilled by the last Dogra king of J&K, Maharaja Hari Singh . There is no doubt that Sheikh Abdullah, the towering leader of Kashmir, and his party National Conference, had endorsed it . The article 370 has nothing to do with the accession, though some are trying to draw that erroneous conclusion . The fact , as testified b history , is that the Article 370 came into being because of the extraordinary circumstances , created by Pakistan’s invasion of Jammu and Kashmir . the whole state was in turmoil . J&K , since it could not merge because of the horrendous blunder by India’s first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru of moving the issue to the United Nations at the time when the Indian army was advancing and very close to recapturing the whole of the territory that now lies under the illegal occupation of Pakistan.
The theory of National Conference and People’s Democratic Party that the revocation of Article 370 had alienated the Kashmiris more and the desperation could drive them to guns . While PDP president Mehbooba Mufti has her own thesis : that when the removal of Article 370 is justified by imposition of choking restrictions , random arrests – defined as ominous knocks at doors of the people who want to speak up and induction of more troops , the youth might take to guns, Farooq Abdullah linked the incidents of current violence to the removal of the constitutional provision.
The violence is being justified because the special status of J&K was withdrawn. Obviously, as observed by Home Minister, they have to define the link between peace and Article 370 . The clear message is that if they fail to define the link, then all their theory collapses, and they should embrace the emerging reality, which talks of peace on the ground with progress of overflowing reservoir of bright future for generations of Kashmir.
