Facts and figures on J&K tabled in the House may paint a rosy picture but won’t change ground realities
Kashmir’s smokescreen becomes so dense by the day that in the end, it solidifies as the only truth, or a picture of it, so relentlessly it is pushed down our throats. And with stories of the non-cooperative Kashmiri and the Western media bias drowning out the validity of the ugly truth that does make it to the surface, the myth takes hold of the mindspace as it is easier to digest narratives that operate within simplistic binaries than raise complex questions. Like the response the Government has tabled in the Rajya Sabha, that stone-pelting has subsided ever since the abolition of Article 370 in Kashmir and that tourist footfalls have increased, apparently generating an additional Rs 25 crore as revenue since August. The first claim gets negated by the government’s own admission that 700 plus people have been detained during the same period. And the bubble of a thriving tourist economy has been burst by a Kashmiri traders’ association claim that the former State has suffered a Rs 12,000 crore loss since the lockdown. Home Minister Amit Shah, too, painted a picture of normalcy, telling the Rajya Sabha how schools and colleges were open, the apple industry was recovering, any preventive curfew was only intended to disable Pakistan-sponsored militancy and that there has been no bloodshed since Kashmir became a Union Territory. As if alienation has been the sole byproduct of exported terrorism. He also defended the blockade of internet corridors, saying the fight against terror propaganda meant that security is prioritised over everything else. Yet, even going by the sanitised reportage from the Valley, communication remains a challenge with landlines operating in fits and starts and patchy internet even at media centres. Yes, the Centre through its agencies is picking up apples but truckers from the plains are being attacked randomly and crates are full of some bad apples, literally, with separatist messages imprinted on them. The entire economy is gasping with the lockdown affecting logistics and supply chain management. Existing small and medium-scale businesses are floundering, delivery service start-ups are on the verge of a meltdown with suspended services, the flight of labour and the absence of internet. No tourist, foreign or domestic, is knowingly planning a visit to Kashmir. Violence, either by militant groups, hitbacks of angry citizens or punitive strikes by security forces, makes for a bigger picture when one joins the dots. And the silence is deceptive in the absence of middle ground between polarities. With citizens also resorting to civil disobedience, refusing to open businesses or keeping their children away from school, it could be the proverbial lull before the storm, a fear psychosis or a siege mentality.
Facts and figures can be tweaked but the truth lies elsewhere as a figment, and that is costing us our credibility. While the world and even much of the domestic opinion, in principle, accepted the withdrawal of Article 370 as operable, the never-ending lockdown is raising more questions about our militaristic ambitions than democratic propriety. The Government’s continued detention of politically elected representatives, who it says had done nothing to control militancy and played the Indo-Pakistan dynamic for their continued relevance, has stifled the only voice of the locals. Nothing explains why the most pro-India voice among them and somebody who has been the BJP’s blue-eyed boy, Omar Abdullah, or even Sajjad Lone continue to be detained. Or why they are being psychologically worn out in dehumanised conditions. If the Government wants to peddle normalcy, then it has to prioritise civil and political engagement, no matter how chaotic or negative the result may be. Restoring civil rights is a must if it wants its governance agenda to not sound like a fable but intended action. A big move always generates big reactions but muzzling them won’t help in a political economy called Kashmir. Egoism must make way for reasoned pragmatism and a majoritarian Government should have the strength to stomach the pitfalls than fogging out reality. The world could soon turn intolerant of us.