The absence of free communication networks and the continued detention of top mainstream politicians has meant that Kashmiri public and political opinion has been suppressed and not allowed to surface. The absence of free communication networks and the continued detention of top mainstream politicians has meant that Kashmiri public and political opinion has been suppressed and not allowed to surface.

Six months have passed since the central government’s August 5 decisions to strip Jammu & Kashmir of its special status through the abatement of Article 370 and downgrade the state to two Union Territories. Years from now, the secrecy and stealth that preceded those decisions, the snapping of communication links and arrests of thousands may pass off as a kind of statecraft unique to the world’s largest democracy, should historians be charitable. For the present, two administrations have taken the place of one, and two lieutenant governors, one in Ladakh and another for J&K, have replaced the governor. The resources, assets, liabilities, properties and administrative personnel of the former state are still being divided between the two new entities. As all this goes on, it seems that the decision to repeal Article 35A has been popular in many other parts of the country, but it is still far from clear if it has been accepted by the people directly impacted by it in J&K, especially in the Valley, notwithstanding the claims of cabinet ministers who visited Kashmir last month, and the government’s determination to showcase “normalcy” for visiting foreign delegations.

The absence of free communication networks and the continued detention of top mainstream politicians has meant that Kashmiri public and political opinion has been suppressed and not allowed to surface. The government has sought to justify its draconian measures by saying that these have ensured that there is no loss of life. True, there have been no violent protests in the Valley. The people of Kashmir expressed themselves only by imposing a curfew on themselves as a kind of civil disobedience for a few months before resuming their lives to the best of their ability amid the crippling internet blockade, which continues despite some relaxations. There has been more criticism of the decisions in Jammu, where 35A is being remembered with more fondness now than before. But it might be a mistake to think that Kashmir’s silence is a sign that the people there have embraced their “integration” with the rest of the country. If anything, the government’s actions targeting the fundamental rights of the Kashmiri people, as pointed out by no less than the Supreme Court, have done much to underline their perceived separateness.

While the promised “development” of J&K is still only a chimera, the economic activity that it did have, based on apple cultivation, fruit trade and tourism, has been badly hit. A bureaucracy not answerable to the people holds sway. Militancy continues, as does recruitment by militant groups. Meanwhile, in moves that are in no way a break from the much vilified political culture of the past, and reminiscent of what Congress governments did in the last century, the government is trying to raise a “third front” of politicians ready to make a pact with the BJP to wield power in J&K. Six months may be too early to assess the impact of the August 5 decisions, but the portents are hardly encouraging.

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