JK News Today Special 

Jammu

 Jammu and Kashmir like the rest of the country had been  waiting for good news of the home coming of Home Minister Amit Shah from the hospital where he had admitted himself for the post- Covid care.  Shah was discharged from the hospital this morning  and is back home.

Not that   he had skipped his work during the days he spent in the hospital , but to be back in the home and work place environment is  a pleasantly different  thing altogether. No hospital  can ever be a substitute to home.

Ever since  the abrogation of Article 370 and 35 A on  August 5 last year  when Amit Shah piloted the new justice system in Jammu and Kashmir where Indians  living in the state/ now two UTs  and elsewhere had the equal rights ,  there is a wait going on for his visit to J&K .

A very competent Lieutenant Governor  Manoj Sinha has been sent by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Jammu and Kashmir. He has started  his work in a big way , meeting and interacting people  and putting his understanding  of things into practice . The work done by him in three weeks since he took over on  August 7 has started having its impact – the administration has started  taking its work seriously and seems to have become responsive. A reward and punishment system appears to have been set in place.

Amit Shah has been  monitoring the J&K developments from the day one of his new assignment  since he took over as Home Minister last year , particularly after August 5,  was , however, preoccupied with so many other issues of the internal security of the country- the progress on Naga talks, dealing with the subversive protests in Delhi and other parts against the CAA, despite unqualified assurances that no one would lose the citizenship,  and setting the narrative , under the guidance of Prime Minister , Indian nation first.

Kashmir  for the first time witnessed  no street protests   and the stone throwing phenomenon of 2008 to 2016 has disappeared by his imaginative approach in which  security forces  were deployed to keep masses out of harm’s way. It was not a small achievement , for there were apprehensions that Pakistan and its  collaborators could upend the things violently .

Now J&K deserves  a little bit of extra attention , as more than one year has passed since  revolutionary steps were taken on August 5 last year  by  the Centre. He was  the pivot for all the changes that have been welcomed across the erstwhile state.

What is required is to give  a direction to the mood  of the people   who are waiting for his word as well, while Prime Minister already has given his  mantras of development  in J&K and reviving the  democratic institutions to their full strength through Delimitation and  elections to the Assembly after having empowered the grassroots  democracy   in J&K, where it was  virtually non-existent before 2018.

Some political groups, keeping in line with their old habits, are trying to play spoilsport, interrupting the narrative of the development and  progress through slogans that have been rendered obsolete. The people need reassurances , it  is in this context that  his being back to home is  important . It is hoped that J&K will get the extra attention that it  has been craving  for long now.