Tough task

The prevailing uncertainty and chaos in the Valley has onceagain proved that anything can happen in Kashmir.

The recent security advisory issued by the government askingtourists and Amarnath pilgrims to curtail their stay and leave Kashmir pressedthe panic button. Kashmiri leaders started beating their chests and went on tospeculate that the Government of India is all set to take a big decision onJammu and Kashmir. This added to the confusion and made people believe thatcoming days are going to be tough.

   

It’s still not clear what the GoI has decided and what wouldbe the Centre’s next move. All of us are aware about the fact that if the GoIhas taken any decision, no one from Kashmir can stop it from going ahead. Thepoliticians who are raising hue and cry are just trying to remain in news bysounding an alarm. 

It’s unfortunate that despite ruling Jammu and Kashmir forthe past seven decades, Kashmiri leaders are struggling to prove theirrelevance and the people sitting in Delhi are taking full advantage of it.People at the helm know it very well that Kashmiri politicians have thrived onboycott politics during all these years and Kashmiris don’t take themseriously.

Today people sitting in New Delhi are talking aboutscrapping Articles 35A and 370, delimitation and even converting Kashmir into aunion territory. All these decisions are directly linked to the survival of themainstream leaders in Kashmir and if Delhi decides to go ahead with its plan itwould mean end of the road for Kashmiri politicians.

Kashmiri leaders should sit back and introspect why Centreis making them dance to their tunes. A thorough introspection will reveal thatour leaders have never taken their people along and are unaware about theground realities. The Kashmiri leaders had taken Delhi for granted and were ofthe opinion that they can keep on dictating terms to the people sitting in thenational capital. However, the government led by the Prime Minister Narendrahas shown Kashmiri leaders their right place. The present regime has drivenhome a point that Centre wants to handle Kashmir in its own way. Anothermessage which the Modi government has given to the politicians is that theirmandate is confined to only managing day to day affairs of the state and theyshouldn’t cross the line. The Bharatiya Janata Party shared power with PeoplesDemocratic Party in Jammu and Kashmir for more than three years, but PDPinstead of focusing on the development kept on raking up the political issues.It tried to make Centre believe that if talks were not held with theseparatists, militants and Pakistan, situation in Kashmir will deteriorate andValley would turn into Syria.

The PDP throwing tantrums and beating around the bush madethe BJP pull out from the PDP led government in Jammu and Kashmir. This provedto be a turning point in the history of mainstream politics in Kashmir. Sincethat day Delhi has dumped the mainstream politicians in Kashmir. Their repeatedpleas to hold the assembly elections have not been heard by anyone in Delhi.

Since the day Prime Minister Narendra Modi has returned topower for the second consecutive term with a thumping majority, the GoI seemsto have decided to resolve the Kashmir once for all.

Many people believe that anti-graft agencies tighteningtheir noose around the politicians and digging out the old cases is a part ofthe plan to make Kashmir based politicians fall in the line so that they don’tmake much noise if the GoI takes some major decision vis-a-vis  Jammu and Kashmir in coming days.   

Kashmiri leaders, who during the past seventy years ruledthe state and acted like monarchs are finding themselves in a quandary atpresent as they don’t know what future holds for them. The present regime ledby Prime Minister Narendra Modi means business and it has made its intentionsclear just within two months. It seems no long ropes will be offered to anyone andthe lingering Kashmir problem will be resolved once for all. The groundwork hasbeen done and now the implementation process is on. Unfortunately none of theKashmiri leaders fit in the plan drafted by the people sitting in the nationalcapital.

(The writer is a Former Journalist and member of JK YouthAlliance)

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