Inside Out

The India we know today was formed through a series of merger agreements signed by the heads of princely states, which incorporated their polities into the Union of India. These merger agreements were often signed under duress with limited reference to the interests of the people they were affecting.  

With no warning, it revoked Article 370 of the Constitution of India, which granted Kashmir a degree of autonomy, while breaking up the state into two “union territories” largely controlled from New Delhi. Authorities placed hundreds of local leaders under house arrest, dispatched thousands of troops to the already heavily militarized state, evacuated tourists, imposed a curfew,  cut off communications links and so on.

Changing Kashmir’s status won’t do anything to ease tensions with Pakistan. To the contrary, it will further empower the Pakistani military, long the main roadblock to peace on the subcontinent. India desperately needs a real strategy to engage with Pakistan, commercially as well as diplomatically. Instead, Modi’s government seems convinced it can continue to ignore and isolate its rival. One result is that trade between the two countries has now broken down entirely.

All Indian laws will be automatically applied to Kashmiris, and people from outside the state will be able to buy property there. The government says this will bring development to the region. Instead, it will only create other issues.

Perhaps most galling, is that Modi neglected to bring on board those Indians with the greatest stake in his decision: Kashmiris. All this scenario take place without the knowledge of Kashmiris and the major political leaders. In between all, an election also took place without other major parties except the BJP.

Since 5 August 2019, the Government of India has shut down all communication channels including the internet access in the Kashmir Valley, a region gripped by a prolonged separatist insurgency. Leading Kashmiri politicians were taken into house arrest until now, including the former chief minister, Mehbooba Mufti, who called the day the blackest in India's democracy. Government officials described these restrictions as designed for preempting violence, and justified the revocation for enabling people of the state to access government programmes such as reservation, right to education and right to information.

In the wake of the shutdown, there have also been reports of a health crisis, a disruption in the lives of students, or the youth going outside the Valley for education or employment, or the panic and anxiety due to the lack of contact with family or friends.

Not only has Union home minister Amit Shah stripped Article 370 of its essence, he has gone one step further and abolished the entire state as well, replacing it with two ‘union territories’ in which key decisions on a range of issues like law and order and land will be taken not by the people and their elected representatives, but by bureaucrats from New Delhi. Basically, when some new laws and amendments are made in the name of development it is necessary to take the concern of the people of the state and that itself is broked here.