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.