Playing the fear card over ‘special privileges’

Arun Joshi

Tribune News Service

Srinagar, August 23

All conversations conclude here with a question: what will happen if Article 35A goes? The answer is: “All hell will break loose in Kashmir”.

The narrative of the consequences of the removal of the Article that confers special privileges on all permanent residents in Jammu and Kashmir to acquire immovable assets, jobs, scholarships, is assuming alarming proportions.

There is a campaign against those who have moved the Supreme Court for its “discriminatory” approach as it debars Indian citizens living in other parts of the country from availing themselves of any of these rights enshrined in the Article. It also denies inheritance rights to children of women of the state married to outsiders.

No one wants to share their privileges with others. In theory, it is a valid point that “its removal will hurt all permanent residents of the state, including those in Jammu and Ladakh.”

Many Kashmiri politicians are seeking their relevance by embarking on protection of Article 35A. Now, they have latched on to the campaign to save the Article. They are back to their old game and preparing to halt the return to peace in its tracks.

Some of the genuine concerns are being translated into horror stories.

Former Chief Minister Omar Abdullah has characterised the petition challenging Article 35A as an attempt by “the RSS to punish Kashmir for being Muslim-majority.” His father Farooq Abdullah, also a former Chief Minister, has warned that “Kashmir will rise in far more explosive revolt than in the 2008 Amarnath land row”.

Taking a cue from this sabre-rattling, Kashmir University professor Syed Hameeda raised a horrifying spectre of “Kashmiri Muslims getting thrown into the Jhelum river.”

The fear card is being played in the manner that a common Kashmiri like Irfan from Bijbehra fears that he would lose everything if the provision granting special rights is withdrawn. The challenge to Article 35A is being used as a double-edged threat among youth: they would lose their current job, if any, and the remotest chances of their getting jobs would be wiped out once and for all, as the outsiders will flood their land.

The jobless are angry, ready to fight the onslaught on their identity and economic prospects. When told that India is doing all this because they are Muslims, evokes their religious passions as well.

This has converted Kashmir into a dangerous landscape.

(To be continued)