Today Kashmir is dignified as never before – PM Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah scripted this journey
JK News Today Special Commentary
On the fifth anniversary of the abrogation of Article 370 on August 5, 2024 , a big question needs to be asked and answered , why it was necessary and what all has been achieved . There are varied views and answers to this question , and all the positives that have taken place are looked at through the BJP’s prism , and all other views come from the opposition parties , especially those whose playground is Kashmir .
As of August 4, 2019 – a day before the abrogation of Article 370 , when the regional political groups met and decided to defend the Article 370 that granted special status to J&K and conferred exclusive rights and privileges , could anyone give a guarantee that the terror campaign that manifested in various forms be halted ? No one . Kashmir was in the grip of guns , stones , and bombs and Pulwama terror attack that claimed lives of 40 CRPF men was still running fresh on the minds of the people . The February 14 Pulwama terror attack was not only the deadliest in the nearly three-decade history of terror violence in Kashmir, it signalled some thing more ; threatened to make Kashmir another bit of Afghanistan and Syria. It was an experiment that Pakistan had made and sought to make a pattern in the Valley.
Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Yemen devastated themselves because of their internecine fighting and the external influences and interventions . These countries were having no future . Pulwama terror attack was a clear manifestation of Pakistan to devastate Kashmir further as it had no love lost for the people of the Valley. Thousands of graves in Kashmir, where youth and other age groups -men and women , are buried , bear a testimony to the disaster that Pakistan has unleashed on the people in Kashmir.
There were two options on the table – to continue with what all was happening in Kashmir – uncertainties in lives with guns and stones waylaying school children, youngsters and the men an women rushing to work places .Indeed, there were phases when there was a lull and gave a false impression that the things won’t reverse to bad days . But the reality was too crude and brutal, people were losing lives, limbs and had no future to look forward to .Anyone trying to challenge the bad things happening to the Valley and its people was dubbed as “ traitor” and an “ Indian agent.” These inimical forces had no interest of Kashmir and Kashmiris at their heart , they just wanted troubles and violence so that they could run their industry of money-making through violence . The whole edifice of Sufi culture and ethos of Kashmir as the most hospitable place was falling apart.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi took a decision that enough is enough . some steps needed to be taken, and the Article 370 that had stood , and was made to look like an unbreakable wall, had to be broken . Per se Article 370 stood as a temporary provision in the Constitution , but its impact on the psychology was permanent , that Jammu and Kashmir is different , in political and constitutional terms abut also a sort of different nationhood .
Today , Kashmir is a picture of transformation . There is certainty in life , and for that end of terrorism was a prerequisite . The anti-terrorism campaign that took on terrorists, their sympathizers and facilitators all at once gained the space for peace . terrorism has become a bad word for the people . That is what the greatest achievement has been .
“ We have broken the wall of Article 370, and liberated the people of J&K from all shackles,” so said Prime Minister Modi , and today the peace in Kashmir is a big evidence of that accomplishment . Kashmir is moving forward .. Union Home Minister Amit Shah who is monitoring the situation on daily basis has brought these changes in a phased manner and the people are happy that they are living in a place with its equal status within the Indian union as men and women with real dignity .
