Arun Joshi
Kashmir has dominated the Lok Sabha poll campaign from one corner to the other as Bhartiya Janta Party is riding high on abrogation of Article 370 theme as something that has brought about hitherto missing integration between Jammu and Kashmir and the rest of India . The integration , it argues , has not been forged with the constitutional change only but also because of its steps to restore peace in the Valley which was battered and ruined by Pakistan- sponsored terrorism .
This is true to a large extent and it is reflected on the ground where greater freedom to live a normal life has beckoned the youth to dream big . Peace is the foundation for all positive activities. The captivity imposed by the bombs, bullets, stones, abductions and burning of schools, has been unshackled . this the contrast , which only the people of Kashmir can appreciate because they have seen and experienced defiling of their land and ethos embedded in thinking over the centuries.
It is for a second time in the general elections in the country that Kashmir figures high in the campaign of BJP. In 2019 elections were held within weeks after the devastating Pulwama terror attack of February 14 when 40 CRPF personnel were killed. This biggest ever terror attack in which the security forces suffered highest number of casualties in nearly three decade of armed militancy in Jammu and Kashmir shook the whole nation. The audacity of terrorists, and the loss that security forces suffered, were unprecedented. This act of terror was punished by hitting at a terrorist training camp in Balakot , deep inside Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province on February 26 , 2019 . The term “Ghar mein ghus ke mrenge ( we will beat them in their home) was given a meaning as India had mounted an aerial strike at Pakistan-based terror training camps . Since BJP Government had redefined the counter-terrorism beyond the geographical and political borders of the country, it adapted its zero-tolerance to terrorism approach in the election campaign.
There is a purpose behind this national narrative about Kashmir. It shows that how the Modi government has changed the approach toward Pakistan – first by striking within the neighbouring country with a calculated risk, and the events proved that the risks were converted into rewards; the world afflicted with terrorism endorsed the Indian action to punish perpetrators of acts of terror residing in Pakistan. Internationally, India was able to convoke the world that Pakistan is the real culprit for all tensions and instability in south Asia. Pakistan was publicized and established as a state that promotes and exports terrorism. That was a big diplomatic success as it put Pakistan on backfoot.
And when Article 370 was abrogated on Article 370 on August 5, 2019, the Modi government rewrote a historical chapter, for many in the country didn’t know that Jammu and Kashmir had acceded to India but not merged with it. It was a burden and curse of the situation in 1940s when India agreed to a ceasefire line with Pakistan , thus giving a sort of legitimacy to Pakistan’s claim that Kashmir was a disputed territory and its fate as Muslim-majority Himalayan region was yet to be decided . The promise of Plebiscite made by India’s first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru became an albatross around the neck. So it was August 5, 2019 decision that laid to rest the ghost of plebiscite forever .The erstwhile state, now divided into two union territories of J&K and Ladakh is merged with India. There is no ambiguity, no confusion. This was necessary for the Indian nation to quelch Pakistani designs and few voices in other countries about the status of Kashmir.
These two actions on February 26 aerial strike in Pakistan in retaliation to Pulwama attack of February 14, and August 5 action of scrapping Article 370, in 2019 were not area-specific. This had ramifications for the country, as the countrymen were forced to view Kashmir a land where they were welcome as tourists only not as Indians. International Community had wider apprehensions – it used to see it as one of the most militarized zones in the country where a solution was awaited for the crisis.
These are national issues about which the BJP has got the patent and it is using it in the national campaign. The opposition is in dock because it has no counter to it, and even if it attempts do so, it will lose prestige in the eyes of nation. That’s why nation is receptive on these issues.
Arun Joshi is author of “Eyewitness Kashmir; Teetering on Nuclear War and senior journalist based in Jammu and Kashmir, writes on South Asian affairs)
Disclaimer: This is the personal opinion of the author. The views expressed in this write-up have nothing to do with www.prameyanews.com.
