COLOMBO : Four years have passed since India stripped Kashmir of its special status, but the territory presents a picture of a dismantled state without a functional government and rule of law. The region is still being remotely controlled by New Delhi. Governor’s rule, imposed in the state in 2018, has been in place for the past five years. The Indigenous population has no say whatsoever in government policies. There has been a complete ban on political and religious gatherings. Deepening turmoil has rattled the region’s economy. Businesses have suffered immense losses, while on the other hand, sharp spikes of poverty, hunger, joblessness, and growing unemployment lay bare Modi’s mantra of so-called development in the region. Every single step India took in Kashmir, ever since the abrogation of Article 370, has pushed hapless Kashmiris to a chasm. There has been no let-up in the apartheid regime’s repugnance for the rights of the Kashmiri people. Despite the lofty claims of “normalcy”, a highly fluid situation fraught with uncertainty continues to mar the region’s socio-political and economic development. India has miserably failed in its attempts to resume a political process in the region. The disintegration of the state under the controversial “Jammu and Kashmir Reorganization Act” and subsequent developments such as disempowerment, disenfranchisement and systematic marginalization of the indigenous population, have not only dealt a severe psychological blow to Kashmiris but also created a sense of fear and insecurity that looms large over the region. A deep sense of alienation and anger in Kashmir against India is clearly evident but it is only by the power of the gun by which the RSS-influenced regime is hell-bent on to control Kashmir and the Kashmiris. Four years down the lane, Kashmir remains cut off from the world, the region has been virtually turned into a hellhole and what’s really happening there is anybody’s guess. Sadly, New Delhi, which has blatantly ignored these pressing issues being confronted by the Kashmiris, appears to be more concerned with projecting an image of normalcy than ensuring rights and accountability in the region. Modi-government is trying to deflect world attention away from the real issue and hide these shocking ground realities by peddling lies and projecting its concocted normalcy narrative on Kashmir but the fact remains that during the past four years the region has witnessed new heights of assimilation and the erasure of its socio-political, religious and cultural identity.
