Jammu and Kashmir — the elusive quest for Statehood
The Hindu – National
thehindu.com
Summary
Subscribed with another email? Both actions were accompanied by the most dubious lockdown in India’s history. Kashmiri response to the Pahalgam attack was a wholehearted rejection of violence, expressed in peace marches and candlelit demonstrations. No Indian State had been stripped of its Statehood since Delhi lost its Statehood in 1956. Together, the two actions comprised a breathtaking violation of India’s constitutional principles and the basic structure of the Union. They should have been seen as the second major salvo against India’s democracy — the first being the re-communalisation of the Indian polity through state-sanctioned attacks on Muslims and Christians — but instead they were hived off as specific to conflict-ridden Jammu and Kashmir. The belief that draconian measures are justified in a conflict-ridden region is fundamentally flawed both morally and pragmatically, as India knows from its own colonial past. Pragmatically, as India knows from its more recent past, subjugation only breeds disaffection which will likely express itself in violence when peaceful means of expression are disallowed. The Supreme Court of India let Solicitor General of India Tushar Mehta parrot the argument for four years before weakly advising that Statehood be restored as soon as possible. After all, it was the first State to overcome communal gerrymandering when the 2024 elections yielded a majority for the pluralist National Conference-Congress alliance.
From the source
Seven years on, J&K still awaits restored Statehood and accountable governance
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Published by The Hindu – National on thehindu.com
