Rajan Gandhi
Sweeping victory of PM Modi for second term is going to be a turning point for the state of Jammu and Kashmir. Opposition’s regular fulminations against Prime Minister Narendra Modi, on everything from unemployment to defence deals, have failed to sway voters. Since last more than thirty years our state has seen bloodshed only. In the name of politics regionalism, religious hatred, loot of public money, anarchy, dynast rulers are the only things public has seen. There is no credibility of local politicians and it can be gauged from the fact that at some places polling below 5% has been observed, people simply don’t trust them. But case of PM Modi is totally opposite, the very fact that he single handedly fought elections on all the seats pan India and it is really a welcome sign to see that people of India trust him, his policies, his promises, his future vision of India, in fact everything and the result is BJP reaped rich dividend of three hundred plus MPs. All dynasts lost their citadels across India so much so that some parties have been just wiped out in ‘Modi Tsunami’. Jammu also entrusted it’s faith in PM Modi’s leadership despite total disenchantment with local politicians irrespective of party line including BJP though both Jammu division seats were secured with thumping margins, but only due to charisma of PM Modi.
Though in the first term BJP stitched a poles apart alliance with PDP, gave whole hearted support to PDP- monetary as well as morally, a total free hand was given to CM Mehbooba Mufti, fact is that even Mehbooba Mufti openly declared that if there is any person who can solve the Kashmir riddle it is PM Modi. For five years PM Modi stuck to his Pakistan policy of no talks untill terrorism ends in Kashmir also he tried his best to get everyone onboard without using any tough measures. Appointment of J&K interlocutor is a testimony that no stone was unturned to bring normalcy in the state but as they say some people learn their lessons in a hard way and in the fourth year of his Government he realized that all is not well and the way he visualized the things to move, it simply didn’t happen accordingly. The result was dumping of PDP in 2018 and immediate focus on public grievances and development works. His special package of almost one lakh was practically intact with no ground level effort by PDP to initiate allotted works to the extent that despite two AIIMS sanctioned to our state no land was demarcated or allotted to executing agencies and this is more damaging in the sense in a state where there is not even Cardio and Neuro Emergency in Super Specialty Hospital. Moreover, our state is facing worst ever terrorism resulting attacks on our forces and civilians and time and again we have to lift our policemen or civilians to AIIMS Delhi for specialized treatment. We lost Arshad Khan, SHO Anantnag, recently despite being airlifted to AIIMS Delhi, we lost Chanderkant Sharma despite airlifted to Jammu and DIG Anantnag, Amit Kumar is still struggling in AIIMS Delhi to recover fully. The slackness on the part of PDP Government can be gauged from the fact that AIIMS Bhatinda sanctioned along with two AIIMS of J&K is going to start first batch of 52 students in its medical college whereas our AIIMS have just crossed the stone laying barrier. This is just one example, ring road, metro, four laning of Jammu Akhnoor road to name a few delayed projects and there are numerous other projects under PMDP of PDD, tourism, RDD, R&B, health which despite DPR being submitted are still waiting for bureaucratic nod from civil secretariat. Silver lining in all this is that all projects of PMDP are under direct supervision of home ministry and with Amit Shah at the helm of affairs of ministry one can expect speeding up of the pending work under his direct supervision.
This is one aspect of the story about development works but the other aspect of terrorism was even more horrifying. Practically speaking if one goes by the statements of leaders of Kashmir, it is difficult to gauge which are main stream parties of Kashmir and which are separatists as both speak the same language and it seems they work in tandem to complement each other in every aspect. Their agenda seems so simple, keep the pot boiling, mint funds from centre and Pakistan and siphon them off for personal use. Recent statements of our Governor SP Malik are really close to facts as he openly admitted such a level of unchecked corruption that nobody wants to come and establish anything here and if we go by the abandoned projects by companies from outside state or lack of participation in tenders one can realize the depth of statement of Governor. With separatist virtually ruling the Kashmir by proxy, issuing hartal calendars and their words were last in day to day life of public of Kashmir, daily sponsored stone pelting was the order of the day and mayhem witnessed by Kashmir after Burhaan Wani episode was unprecedented. Movement of unchecked hawala money exchanging hands without any fear of law, so much was the chaos that even murder cases pending against Hurriyat leaders were not followed for decades. But as they say everything has its own shell life and with central as well as state agencies given free hand, law of the land started catching up with the serial offenders. Fact is that today leaders like Yasin Malik, Shabir Shah, Asiya Andrabi are behind bars facing investigations/trials, NIA/CBI/ED are having clinching evidences of hawala money transactions by these leaders running into crores of rupees.
With dried up hawala money and fear of getting caught by central agencies and law fast catching up these anti nationals don’t have any space to hide and now the same Mirwaiz Omar Farooq who used to incite youth from Jama Masjid after every Friday prayers is pleading for talks now. Such is the impact of clear cut Modi policy of Kashmir that gunning down of terrorist Zakir Moosa had virtually no impact on the entire valley, no indefinite shutdowns and no consistent stone pelting. As far as local terrorism is concerned army’s ‘Operation All Out’ is having desired effect with almost daily encounters to eliminate remaining terrorists, local recruitment of youth has almost dried up and of course among all these things is the most important fact that PM Modi’s international diplomacy has isolated Pakistan completely. FATF still has Pakistan on ‘grey-list’ over global terror finance and China agreeing to declare Masood Azhar as global terrorist has dealt a severe blow to cornered Pakistan as it is finding it difficult to come out of the quagmire and PM Imran Khan of Pakistan is practically begging for talks with India. Impact of Operation Balakote is clearly visible with Pakistan still not able to come out of fear of another Indian attack and as such it’s not daring to open its airspace. Terrorism and talks cannot go side by side, message is clear.
The other major impact on the psychology of valley people is the removal of J&K Bank Chairman for malpractices in day to day working, illegal appointments, loans to favorites turning NPA to name a few. Practically Jammu and Kashmir Bank was being run like a family business with no fear of law, no corporate responsibility and such was the level of accountability that fifty crores of public money was spent on Srinagar Golf Course under Corporate Social Responsibility Schemes and more than hundred of crore of loan was resettled in peanuts with impunity with active fraternization of bank employees. Once RBI and other agencies put a red flag Central Government immediately acted and raids by ACB are a testimony that every penny of public money is accountable and who so ever is responsible for the loot he or she will have to face the music. This swift action on Jammu and Kashmir Bank has been widely appreciated across the whole state, even in Kashmir and the message is clear either fall in line or law will take its own course. Setting up of ACB by Governor and with ACB now proactively pursuing the corrupt, a new kind of enthusiastic impact is distinctly visible. Orders of videography before and after the work, clear cut instructions on prior approval from the administrative offices has started giving the results though it is too early to say all is well now. ‘Back to Village’ initiative has also shaken up the bureaucracy from the deep slumber; impact is clearly visible as in this age of social media messages travel down the line very fast. People are coming out to share their grievances against local officials. Such is the impact that salaries of school teachers are being released only after testimony from parents and sarpanch about their attendance. What else a common man wants? A little bit of accountability, a few facilities, some words of solace.
As promised by PM Modi during elections, Jammu hopes that Article 370 and 35A will be abrogated well in time to fully integrate J & K with rest of India and delimitation commission is also set up to rectify regional imbalance. What more can be a true tribute to sacrifice of Dr. Shyama Prasad Mookherjee, founder of Jan Sangh, of course it will be ‘Ek Vidhaan Ek Nishaan Ek Pradhan’ and it seems those days are not far away.
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