As 26th October came, while the rest of the India was celebrating Accession day of Kashmir, the Kashmiri separatists had called for a day protest in the valley, calling it a black day. This year has already been bloody humid for the separatist leaders already because the return of the Cordon and Search Operations and 180 terrorists are already sent to their makers by the Armed Forces while 2 more months are still left on the calendar. The ongoing momentum of psuedo-freedom movement has been badly damaged with the decreased number of stone-pelting incidents by many-folds. On one hand the army has crushed the back-bone of the militancy, the NIA has been consistent in their raids to look out for the source of the terror funding.
The Army will continue to kill the enemies of the state, but the question occurs: what we need to do to stop militancy from the roots. It’s not the job of the Armed forces to solve the Geo-political drama of the valley. Well, it hasn’t been political or geographical since 1989, when the Jihad exploded and since then Kashmir has to compromise with the actual freedom, the freedom of thinking. There is a great saying, “If you can win hearts, you can win the whole world”. The center government now must understand as the time passes and the militancy is contained by the army, it is the time when they call up for the most needed Revolution in Kashmir.
On the basis of actual facts, Kashmir never developed either in the terms of infrastructure or the state of mind. You can simply call out the reason for this, whether the tensions with Pakistan or the unrest going on, but the only thing which can get up Kashmir in the real value is getting Kashmir out of the Third World and put it in the front. But, how would that happen? No, it won’t happen in one or two months, or even months, but it is worth doing. Article 370 and Article 35A has already been a headache for private industrialization, no one can buy land or set up industries, not at least they get the permission from the Legislative Assembly. There is some place where we need to soften the laws, even if they don’t want to completely or partially remove these laws, they have to provide certain exceptions and permissions for the businesses to set up and companies to flourish, to produce more job.
Coming to the psychological state of the people, Jammu and Kashmir is much more developed than Pakistan Occupied Kashmir, but it’s just not enough, is it? The people of Kashmir has actually not tasted the freedom of thinking, choice and work. The state and central government need to promote more and more things related to entertainment or technology and most importantly education. Education would be the last thing the terror organisations would want the Kashmiris to do, cause they hide the truth and “Education is the key to open the lock of these closed minds”. Promoting or even enforcing Education, other things like entertainment, when was the time when a cinema hall was open in Kashmir? I don’t remember it eventually. Especially promoting things which these terror groups oppose, like freedom of clothing.
Cause the separatists don’t want to spoil their craft work, they will go to any extent to keep the unrest going, whether it means burning down schools or shutting malls or cinema halls, they don’t the youth to look outside the window and breathe some fresh air. The revolution of Kashmir is not a small step, it will need consistency, some large efforts and very observed and calculated steps. Even so it would take a lot of time, but we have given 70 years of peace, why don’t 5-10 more?
