The Narendra Modi led BJP government has lived up to one of the promises they have made continuously in their election manifesto. On August 5 2019, Home Minister Amit Shah announced that the government was revoking Article 370 and Article 35A which gave the state of Jammu and Kashmir special status. it was also proposed that the state of Jammu and Kashmir would be divided into two Union Territories namely Jammu/ Kashmir and Laddakh.
After the announcement was made, almost the whole country leapt into celebration mode singing praises of PM Modi and Amit Shah. Some political parties have supported this move of the government while some have totally opposed it. The supporters are of the view that this will bring equality to the people of Kashmir and now they can easily blend in with the rest of India and hence more development. On the contrary, the opposing people are saying that the people of Kashmir feel betrayed by the Government of India and this can have dire consequences because the people who were happy to merge with India may also go away now.
Regardless of who is right or wrong, this move of the Government of India has certainly created havoc in the valley of Kashmir. Whether they are right in doing so or not only time will tell and hence I am not voicing my opinion on this because my concern is different.
As a student of Journalism, my concern is about the democracy of India. The way the government has imposed this decision on the people of Kashmir is totally undemocratic. They deprived the citizens of Kashmir of their freedom of expression and imposed this decision on them. The Government placed heavy military in Kashmir, shut down the internet and landline phone connections, made a sudden announcement of curfew and house arrested all the political leaders of J&K. Not only this, the government curtailed the Amarnath Yatra by lying that they fear a terrorist attack might take place! If this is not undemocratic, I don’t know what is. Not only is this undemocratic but also a clear violation of Human Rights.
Now people might say to me, that if the government would have discussed their decision beforehand, then the matter would have been stuck for God knows how much time. Yes, might right, but can you use this justification to impose something on any community? How are going to win their trust by locking them? Will this result in a permanent solution? I have my doubts! Now another section will say to me ” Kya har waqt democracy democracy kartey rehte to tum log!“ (why do you keep going on about democracy?) I am not going to explain anything to them because I believe they just don’t understand the value of democracy and they will only realise it when they won’t have it. I hope that day never comes.
What I am trying to explain is that the ‘democratic ethics’ on which this great country is built on, cannot be compromised under any circumstances. Dividing a state into a UT will result in even less democracy in the valley. Yes, telling people beforehand may have lead to violence but can you guarantee it won’t lead to violence now? Was the only criteria of the government to scrap this Article without much fuss from Kashmir and international governments and then see where it would lead to?
If this was the thinking, I think we have probably given power in the wrong hands once again. Even if telling people beforehand would have lead to violence than whose job is it to control that? Why have the people of India given such a big mandate to one man? Because they believe that one man is a one man army who will protect their democratic rights.
My concern is that if tomorrow another issue arises which requires the central government to intervene, then all the government needs to do is in bring in the military, impose a curfew, cut all communication methods and divide the state into two parts. If the people of India will not voice their disappointment on this undemocratic step of the Government today, tomorrow they might become the victims.
The questions here really are, what have we done to democracy? What have we turned it into? What happens once democracy has been used up? What if it has been hollowed out and emptied of meaning? What happens when each of the institutions has metastasised into something dangerous? Is it possible to reverse this process? Can something that has mutated, go back to being what it used to be?
I sincerely hope that people learn about the greatness of democracy and raise their voices whenever the government does anything undemocratic. I hope revoking Article 370 will bring peace in the valley of Kashmir but the way it was brought into effect makes me pessimistic. I hope that I am wrong and in the end, democracy will prevail because I know its value and I will keep hoping. I would like to end this article with a two-line poem,
“nahi nigah me manzil to justuju hi sahi,
nahi wisaal mayasaar to arzu hi sahi”
(If not a destination in my eyes, let there be the desire of thee
If we are not destined to meet, let there be the wish to see)