In its affidavit filed in the Supreme Court in reply to the challenge to the scrapping of Article 370 of the Constitution, the Union government claimed that since August 5, 2019, when the historic decision was taken, there has been a dramatic improvement in the situation in Jammu and Kashmir. The affidavit said, “In 2018, there were 228 terrorist-initiated incidents, 143 infiltrations, 1,767 stone-pelting incidents, and 91 security force personnel were killed in action against terrorists. However, by 2022, the terrorist-initiated incidents had reduced by 45 % to 125, net infiltration by 90% to 14, stone-pelting incidents by 97% to 50 and the loss of personnel was 31.”
Regrettably, all of these gains have been neatly undone by the four terrorists who gunned down 26 tourists from close quarters at the verdant Baisaran expanse in Pahalgam tehsil on April 22. It is not exactly that the situation is back to square one. But the inescapable reality is that in one fell stroke, the terror quartet not only nipped the 2025 tourist season in the bud but also sent a grim reminder that the abrogation of Article 370 has not made much difference to the cold ground reality, which is the continued alienation of the average Kashmiri Muslim from the dispensation in Delhi.
The massive trust deficit was evident when I spoke to several persons from different walks of life during a recent visit to the state. It is true that Kashmiris, including the political class and media industry, near-unanimously and in an unprecedented manner denounced the April 22 massacre. However, the pathetic failure of the security forces to arrest the four terrorists even well over a month after the bloodbath has only reinforced Kashmiri Muslims' deep cynicism and distrust.
They are grappling with a number of questions for which the government is unable to provide answers. The main question being asked is why it took the Rapid Action Force over 40 minutes after the bloody mayhem to reach the site on April 22? It is true that access to Baisaran is not easy. It is only now that the Omar Abdullah government is talking of laying a macadamised road. But that is no justification for the inordinate delay of over 40 minutes. The very idea of constituting a Rapid Action Force is that it will reach the site of an incident with speed. The crucial 40 minutes gave sufficient lead time to the terror squad to escape into the thick woods.
The other question being asked is why there was virtually zero security at Baisaran, which is a very popular tourist spot. Even a child would have understood the need to provide security cover at Baisaran. But, for some inexplicable reasons, the authorities did not deem it necessary to provide security cover. “This is not how security agencies work,” a local shopkeeper at Anantnag town bemoaned.
The locals are convinced that the forces did receive “intelligence input” about the presence of terrorists a few weeks before the gory incident, but for some strange reason no one appears to have acted on the reported tip-off. The anger of the Kashmiris is exacerbated by statements emanating from so-called experts during television debates that the attack could not have been executed without “local support”. Said Salim Bhat, a shopkeeper in Srinagar, “We are consciously trying to keep ourselves away from organisations tainted with terror, but allegations such as these will force our young, jobless generation to gravitate towards the hotheads.” The deep distrust of the establishment was evident when I asked a young professional in the heart of Srinagar, “Who is behind the Pahalgam horror?” He replied laconically, “Ask the agencies.” This attitude underscores the worrying alienation of the Kashmiri youth. Despite several outreach programmes undertaken by the military and paramilitary forces, the hiatus between the Kashmiris and the government is only widening.
This brings us to the question of Kashmiriyat. Nursing a deep feeling of disempowerment among the Muslim masses, the idea of Kashmiriyat does not include the Kashmiri Pandits anymore. “The chasm between Kashmiri Muslims and Hindus has widened so much that only a miracle will bring them together,” a KP activist observed. “All the talk of common language, shared culture, et al as embodied in the concept of Kashmiriyat, sounds so hollow. The umbilical cord, which bound the two communities, was permanently damaged 36 years ago when thousands of KPs were violently ejected from the Valley, their women were raped and their houses burnt. Whatever little hope the KPs had was snuffed out when the Supreme Court refused to hear a petition seeking justice for the community. The efforts of the central government to help relocate the KPs back in their homes in the Valley have added up to zilch. On the question of the “ghar wapsi” of KPs, the local Muslims' answer is a clear “nyet”.
The problem is that the centre is clueless as to how to handle the situation in Kashmir. The appointment of Satyapal Malik, a politician of the “aya ram, gaya ram” vintage, who did not have even the faintest idea of Kashmir, as the lieutenant governor reflected poorly on those who hand-picked him for the crucial job and were in charge of the Kashmir policy. It is a different matter that Malik has now become the most unforgiving critic of the Modi government, seeing its hand behind every crisis in the Union territory. Malik has been replaced by yet another politician, Manoj Sinha of the BJP. But the problem is not how to further the penetration of the BJP in the UT but to integrate it organically with the rest of the nation. The present situation in Kashmir, unfortunately, does not augur well for the country.
S. Balakrishnan is a senior journalist with the FPJ.
