Kashmir mirrors all the missteps of the Indian state since independence. The overhang of the messy partition still hangs over the consciousness of citizens of both Indian & Kashmir.

Since 1948, successive governments at centre failed to fulfill the aspirations of Kashmiris. Democracy was established in name and most chief ministers of J&K were mere puppets of the central govt. Also, in the 1970s, following the Sheikh-Indira accord, the Indira Gandhi govt set in motion the process of stripping the Kashmir govt and its constitution of its independent powers. A major bone of contention in Indian politics has been the appointment of Governor in the states by the central govt. The governor has wide discretion and acts as an agent of the centre.

On 19 January 1990, Jagmohan Malhotra, a hardline administrator was appointed as the governor of the state. But this was vehemently opposed by state government and Farooq Abdullah resigned as chief minister of the state in protest. Thus, Governor’s rule (Article 356) was imposed on the state and Mr. Mehta wielded extraordinary power. Though there is no hand and fast rule in the Constitution requiring the centre to seek the opinion of the state govt while appointing the governor, it is always advisable to do so. Farooq Abdullah was a close friend of the Gandhi-Nehru family and the Prime Minister at the time was VP Singh, who ruled with the outside support of BJP.

An armed insurgency was already underway in Kashmir valley after the 1987 state elections. The next day of Jagmohan’s appointment, the entire Kashmir valley erupted due to search-and-sieze operations carried out by the army in the dead of the night to weed out militants. This led to large scale protests which were organized by the separatist group, JKLF (Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front). Large scale protests were organised in valley. On 21 January 1991, the Gawdal massacre occurred wherein the jawans of CRPF (Central Reserve Police Force, a paramilitary force) opened fire on a group of protesters killing atleast 50 people. This has been described as one of the worst massacres in Kashmir’s history.

But it is conspicuous that violence begets violence and violent cycle continues unabated.

On 10 feb 2018, four heavily armed militants of Jaish-e-Mohammad attacked an army camp in Sunjuwan in Jammu, killing 6 soldiers, 1 civilian and injuring many others. The pregnant wife of an Indian soldier was also shot in the back. But due to immediate medical attention, both the woman and the child survived. In no small sense, Kashmir reads like a bad dream that keeps recurring every night.