Make J&K partner in drawing roadmap for its future

Arun Joshi

People in Kashmir have stopped looking at the calendar. They have stopped counting days since August 5, 2019, when the former state of Jammu and Kashmir was stripped off its special status and statehood. It is a worrisome situation, for this is a firm indication that the “historic” decision taken with all boldness and against all the international pressure is being frittered away. Union Home Minister Amit Shah, the architect of the epoch-making measure, should take due cognisance of it. The success of the decision is linked to Kashmir, which is at the core of the Indian nationhood.

A troubling thing, and it should worry the establishment the most, is that the people are unable to see the promised roadmap. No, they don’t have a blurred vision or they are afflicted with squinted view.

Article 370 , when abrogated, held a wide ranging pledge that all would be equal – that is, that , they, as pure citizens of India like that of the rest of the country, would have equal rights , and many doors would open simultaneously to development, opportunities in which they would employ themselves . They are wise people. They knew that all this would not happen overnight. They, however, were put to a test to trust the new lifeline of promise, not only as an alternative to the perceived constitutional guarantees and special rights and privileges that were available to them by virtue of Article 370 and Article 35A, but as partners in the progress of their place.

But what could have happened did not happen. Isn’t it a sorry state of affairs that Jammu and Kashmir is not having a reliable road connectivity between Jammu and Srinagar? The highway imposes miseries rather than being a source of comfort in travelling from one place to another. The train chugging to the Valley continues to be an oasis in the desert.

In real life, as also in the theatre, there is an urge to see the next Act after the curtains are lifted.

The days of demonising Article 370 are over. If the narrative is persisting in the country, it means that the gaps are yet to be bridged. Strangely though, Kashmir is silent about it. That speaks for the different nature of its understanding.

Amit Shah had all the sincere intentions when he took this historic step in August last year – to provide good governance, introduce transparency and accountability in the system. Now it is for him to find out why that roadmap is yet struggling to emerge.

Examples: there is no electricity in homes even when power is available – the burnt transformers have not been repaired, the salaries of the contractual college teachers and medical employees have been cut by 40 per cent, the streets are full of stench.

The Home Minister has a special responsibility to set the whole of J&K in order. Some efforts have been made. Committed men like Lt-Governor (L-G) GC Murmu are doing their best to bring about the positive change.

Shah needs to give a sense of participation, tap the aspirational youth who line up for exams, stand in endless queues for filling forms at the Internet kiosks, they have faith in the Centre and trust it for delivering. They need to be from the ground where a psychological freeze has grounded them. This can draw the contours of a trustworthy roadmap. Shah can do it. The best course would be to make the J&K stakeholders as partners in drawing this roadmap.