Jammu and Kashmir: Amit Shah’s visit
Asia News Agency
Union Home Minister Amit Shah completed his visit to Jammu and Kashmir last week.
His public rallies in Rajouri in Jammu and Baramulla in Kashmir were well attended and have gone down well with the people.
Shah struck a positive note when he said he would listen to Kashmiris, writes The Indian Express. “The people of the erstwhile state are waiting to be heard. On his last visit to Kashmir in October 2021, Shah made a similar promise, but so far, neither he nor anyone else in the Modi government has shown signs of readiness to engage with the Kashmiri people and to listen to them. Under the J&K Administration, run by Shah’s ministry, the communication appears to be top-down. Even among Kashmiri Pandits, who believed they had a natural ally in the BJP, there is a growing sense that they have not been given a hearing."
Blaming the ‘three families’
Importantly, Shah blamed Kashmir’s ‘three families’ (and Pakistan), for the present mess and for the killing of about 40,000 people in the valley. While, the ‘three families’ of Kashmir may still seem stuck in an older groove, “the reality also is that the Centre has been an accomplice — or an adversary — complicit in many of their errors of commission and omission. To blame politicians, as Shah did, for all the deaths in the Valley due to terror and militancy is, plain, wrong. Anyway, these three families have been relegated to the margins in the shifting political landscape in Jammu and Kashmir.”
Ground realities have changed quite significantly
The Indian Express makes an important point by writing that “In its apparent sameness, Minister Shah’s rhetoric seems not to account for the fact that realities have changed quite significantly on the ground in Kashmir and vis a vis Pakistan — even if no politician in Pakistan will admit this openly, the country in which the slogan used to be ‘Kashmir banega Pakistan’ (Kashmir will become Pakistan) the talk is now, more, of statehood for J&K within the Indian Union. Pakistan’s cross-border activities are no longer what they used to be. It is also not entirely accurate that Delhi no longer engages with Pakistan on Kashmir — the ceasefire on the Line of Control came after months, if not years, of back channel negotiations between the two sides, and is a boon for the people of Rajouri which Shah visited, as it was for other places in the line of fire."
Listening to people important
The key to eating peace however, remains engagement with the people in Kashmir. The “three years of restrictions have had a chilling effect and severely eroded their autonomy. Civil society leaders have also retreated from public spaces. Especially in these circumstances, where the executive is domineering and other spaces and institutions are constrained and constricted, there is no better way to listen to the people than through an election. A local bodies election after which the winners do not feel secure enough to step outside their safe houses, is not an answer…..”
Polls on the agenda by next summer
It appears the Centre has also realised this and there are indications that preparations for Assembly elections may have begun. Observes like Liz Mathew (deputy political editor of The Indian Express) say this is apparent from Home Minister Amit Shah’s visit to the Valley and his underlining of Prime Minister’s flagship welfare schemes.
In addition, with the Election Commission is expected to complete the preparatory process by November-end, there is ‘growing optimism’ that elections could be held in the Union Territory by next summer.
The new voter list is expected to include those who migrated from PoK and erstwhile West Pakistan as well as those who had left Kashmir during the troubled years. The Centre also announced that a person residing in J&K for at least 15 years will be eligible to be a domicile of the Union Territory.
A confident BJP
With the large turnout and the response of the crowd at Shah’s public rally Wednesday in Baramulla, Mathew states “the BJP believes, are indicators of the ‘normalised’ atmosphere in the region…..Sources in the BJP said there have been ‘indicators’ that the situation on the ground has changed and a conducive atmosphere is ‘getting prepared’ for holding elections.
The two main political parties in Kashmir – National Conference and the PDP with which the BJP had an alliance in the past and ran a coalition government – have been urging the government to hold talks with Pakistan for restoring peace and normalcy in Kashmir.
