Dark past is buried, sun of new hope and promise shines on Valley
JK News Today Commentary
What Union Home Minister Amit Shah told Rajya Sabha on Friday- March 21, 2025 – exactly on the 1997th day of the abrogation of Article 370 that he had announced on August 5, 2019 – is a story of the splendid journey that J&K started on that watershed moment in the history? It has been a journey from dark hours to the shinning new paths of hope and promise.
Today, Jammu and Kashmir has a story to tell of its continuing success in a peaceful atmosphere which was unthinkable when the constitutional provision stood as a wall between the erstwhile state and the rest of the country. The decision on au August 5, 2019 was taken with a lot of trepidation as there were lot of apprehensions as to how would it play out with the local population and the international community. The decision exuded confidence of the Modi government to take bold decisions on the national interest.
At that time, there was a backdrop of dark past. If January 1, 1990 is taken as the day and date when the violence erupted in Kashmir, though 1989 itself was a canary in coalmine, the Valley had witnessed 10,808 days of terror violence and fear until the midnight of August 4, 2019. It is very difficult to imagine for the generation of today’s Kashmir what their parents and grandparents underwent in those days when the life had lost its meaning.
And, as the decision is approaching its 200th day, it is important to recall the past and look ahead to understand the whole dimension of the abrogation of Article 370. No leader in Jammu and Kashmir had ever given a guarantee of taking on terrorists in a no-holds-barred manner to bring peace that the masses were yearning for. They were looking more at the political pitfalls than the overall good of the state and its people .They allowed the terrorists to develop their networks of recruitment, running parallel economy and challenging the politically established system, undermining their own democratic credentials and commitment to pull people out of quagmire.
On Friday when Home Minister was describing the new reality of Jammu and Kashmir, its testimony lay in the ground situation in the Union Territory. There is an atmosphere of freedom to move, work, do business and learn in schools, where new priorities have replaced the old ones. The parents are looking at building future of their children, not how to keep them safe from the forces of violence- guns and stones.
Amit Shah listed all the comparative statistics and situations of the past and present before the members of Rajya Sabha, many of whom were present on August 5, 2019, as well .The changed situation in J&K mirrored the words of Home Minister. It is not the change from the past but also look into future of the new generation and firm hope for the generations born and brought up during conflict of more than 35 years of stability in their lives.
Essentially, the abrogation of Article 370 and the subsequent strong anti-terrorism operations were a result of change in the approach of the Central Government – from just watching the things helplessly and seeking end to violence by offering seat to patrons of the perpetrators of crime against humanity to neutralizing the whole ecosystem of terrorism within and outside of the borders. The Modi government did this- by sending clear message to Pakistan through surgical and aerial strikes in response to September 2016 and February 2019 incidents of attack on Uri garrison and Pulwama respectively. As a result of this, Pakistan has not dared to repeat major terror attacks like Pulwama. It may be recalled that Pulwama terror attack was the major terror assault on the security forces in Kashmir since 1990 when the large scale militancy erupted in Kashmir. Forty CRPF personnel were killed in that terror assault plotted by Pakistan and executed by terror outfit Jaish-e-Mohammad in Kashmir.
That is the new approach. And greater change that has come with it is that neither Pakistan nor its agents working in J&K – there are few of them still in existence – about the continuing of terror in the territory. They have lost all logic and argument to do so. Not only the terror has been decimated but all the terror tools of indoctrinating susceptible elements have been hollowed out.
