Kashmir on edge

A great sense of unease combined with a fear of eruption of streets is palpable in Kashmir.  The separatists and the deemed mainstream have come together and the ruling Peoples Democratic Party has swayed towards them in a bid to show that it can stand up to its right-wing ally, BJP, on issues perceived to be hurting Kashmir. These games and postures have created an atmosphere of unrest. Mishaps take place in Kashmir in a matter of minutes when a lethal mix of distorted facts and fiction comes to rule the psyche. A fear of an assumed assault on the religious and ethnic identities of Kashmiri Muslims is being instigated. That is prompting them to fight back to retain the special status of the state and avert an “imminent threat” to the Muslim majority character of the Valley. 

In this frame of thinking any and every issue — be it residential enclaves for migrant Kashmiri Pandits, state subject ex-servicemen, new industrial policy or NEET — becomes an occasion for deepening alienation. Separatists see in the opening of new medical colleges ways of bringing non-locals to undermine the ethnic and religious majority of the place. To make it look like a real assault — and the need to resist it — the hitherto divided separatist leaders have “united.”  Common Kashmiris feel something is definitely wrong.  Streets are vulnerable to protests.  Since there is no counter-narrative, “my way or the highway” attitude is rolling on. That a design is at work gains credence when a host of issues appear all of a sudden and the ruling class joins the chorus of sharing the separatists' concern on protecting the special status of the state. 

The backdrop is ominous. Three policemen were gunned down in Srinagar on Monday. There is ready acceptance of any call to shutdown and protests from the separatists despite the high tourist season. The PDP-BJP alliance sans the requisite development and sense of empowerment is helping the forces wanting to make this summer really hot.