Kashmir- as it is today

These days, I have seen scores of stories in Indian media on Kashmir and the abrogation of article 370 and the killing of article 35A and the year passed after all that happened in August and October last year and so on. But essentially, all the stories were made by talking to those who were on the losing side. I don’t know how the main-stream journalists see it. But as I see it, I am sure there is a void in the political space of Kashmir as of now. It should be more than clear that the void has been created by the Union Government, through its actions on 5^th Aug. 2019. On that day, it must have felt like an earthquake. The so-called mainstream politics became irrelevant instantaneously. For last 70 years, only two sets of people were vocal in Kashmir. One was the separatists who wanted to break away from India and whose feeling can be summarised by one very famous quote saying that we (meaning they) will not be happy, even if the Government of India constructs roads made-up of gold in Kashmir. The second set was the three political outfits- the Abdullas, the Muftis and the Hurriyat, all of whom used to hold a gun on the head of the Union and would say, ‘सो जा. बेटा सो जा नही तो सेपरेटिस्ट आ जाएगा.” All the three always blackmailed India saying that if you don’t listen to us, the separatists will prevail. The current Central Government is the first one to call the bluff. For the very first time, somebody had the courage and who dared to say that we will deal with the separatists separately; but we won’t allow your blackmail to go on. As a result, the mainstream politics has been made irrelevant now. Nothing else was allowed to grow for 7 decades, hence this void. No wonder!

 I’m sure you will agree that people who have created this void deliberately and knowingly, must have thought about it also. If they were aware that a void will be created, in all probability, they have thought of how to fill it. The new domicile laws, is the first step in this direction. Over next year or a little more than that, totally new outfits would spring in Kashmir. These will be the outfits talking on behalf of the SC-STs who got political reservations for the first time; outfits talking for the migrants of partition who came to valley in the aftermath of partition and who have settled there since then for last three or four generations, who have seen no other place or have no other home on earth, but who were denied any respectful existence over last 70+ years; outfits speaking the woes of the workers who were imported to Kashmir for doing menial work and were allowed to settle in the valley - but without any official existence and denying them any dream of a better tomorrow. I want to hear the voice of these people today, if it’s possible. They are the ones who were denied all human dignity for 70+ years and who are the targets of the new system that the Central Government is looking to set-up in J&K. If everybody goes to the beneficiaries of article 35A and asks them how they feel, the answer will only stories of deprivation and unrest. You can’t go to a critical diseases hospital and ask the patients how they feel and still hope to hear any positive stories. We have to reach those deprived people who got their forhold for the first time in valley and ask them also.

Will any mainframe journalist venture it? I am willing to be a voluntary support. Or am wiiling to do this story, with a proper support.