One Year Of Abrogation Of Article 370: Another Masterstroke Of BJP

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Kashmir Article 370 Abrogation. About a year ago from now, the central government removed article 370 from our constitution, people all across the nation were happy even I supported the decision personally. But how did this decision impact the citizens of Kashmir, their daily lives?

With the revocation of Article 370 from Kashmir, the government made huge promises. There is nothing to be surprised by it. Today, after a year of this decision, the government is celebrating it across the country. The problem doesn't lie with this celebration. But if you too want to celebrate a step, we should also see whether that particular step has been able to successfully achieve its objectives.

Let's talk about the true story of this masterstroke. 5th August 2019, it was just another day for the rest of India; Everything was going in the entire country but Kashmir was in a state of suspense since August 4th itself. On August 5th 2019, Home minister Amit Shah announced the abrogation of Article 370 and bifurcated the state into two union territories. The government also prepared a long list of objectives to be achieved by this decision along with the announcement.

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The list said that this step will bring prosperity in Kashmir, increase in industrialization, rise in job opportunities for youth in Kashmir, expansion of horticulture and handicraft industry, boost the tourism industry, protection of the rights of women and scheduled tribes in Kashmir, etc. etc. You can check it out yourself from the govt website. Now whether these objectives were achieved or not, we'll tell you in a short while, but there was one such scheme that was implemented in Kashmir overnight- the scheme was Lockdown. If you feel tired after a 4-month lockdown then you'll be amazed to know that they were in a lockdown even before the coronavirus started.

ECONOMIC LOSS

From August 2019 to December 2019, Kashmir economy suffered a loss of Rs 15000 crore right after Article 370 was scrapped already there was a lockdown on the grounds of national security and then the cherry on the top-Corona. After all this, according to the trade body in Kashmir, KCCI, businesses in Kashmir have suffered a loss of estimated Rs 40,000 crores Creation of new job opportunities is a far-fetched dream now, while over 90000 jobs are already lost in the handicraft, tourism and information technology sectors. In June 2019, the unemployment rate in Kashmir was at 15.89% which was the least in the country then. Today, the youth of Kashmir is forced to migrate to other parts of India in search of jobs. This is when 23,000 government posts are vacant in Kashmir only. August 5th brought such normalcy in Kashmir that the tourism sector is frozen to death. The apple industry of Kashmir, worth Rs 8000 crores, was worst affected and this caused Kashmir's GDP to fall sharply. Not just Kashmir, recently students, religious and political groups in Ladakh protested on the lack of job creations in Ladakh. Even after a year, there is no recruitment board, no job security other than a few contractual jobs by private firms. Coming on the second big promise by the government was to provide better education and more job opportunities for the children and youth of Kashmir. For this, former governor of J&K, Satyapal Malik announced a youth package a few months after the abrogation of Article 370

50000 youths were promised employment under this package. A promise was made but it does not mean that it needs to be fulfilled! No job notification regarding this scheme has been released till now.

INTERNET PROBLEM

Children in Kashmir couldn't even log in to their Facebook accounts for months, forget Instagram. And even today, Kashmiris are living with the 2G network only. Work from home and study from home must be going very smoothly there! In the rest of India, people get a stroke if their TV signal is lost for two minutes. Then there is Kashmir, where there is no source of information whatsoever. Let alone the creation of new jobs, many couldn't apply or give examination for the job opportunities already available because of poor internet.

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NEW MEDIA POLICY

Not just job notifications, the government has ensured that the Kashmiri's won't get any information with their New Media Policy. New Media Policy, it can also be called No Media Policy in simpler terms. I mean to say that under this policy, any news media agency that spreads violence, any media house that questions country's unity, who won't follow the norms of public decency, such news agencies won't get any ad. Moreover, news agencies spreading fake news, unethical news or indulging in anti-national activities shall be shorn off their official recognition and access. In this bill, what will be considered unethical, anti-national; what can anger the authorities? So the J& K's information department can decide what is right and what is wrong.

LOCKDOWN IN KASHMIR

Now, let's come to the most important promise by the government that they made with the revocation of Article 370. Peace in Kashmir. The government made this easy in just one stroke- by locking down all Kashmiris in their houses, utilizing the army at its best, and by detaining all the local politicians. This means that when there will be no one on the streets then there will be peace only, right? The government believed that scrapping of Article 370 would help in curbing terrorism and militancy, Pakistan will get a strong hit. I don't know about Pakistan, but bifurcation of J&K into two union territories made China a third member in this conflict. This has caused an increase in our strain, at least in the international borders. The consequences of which we just saw in the Ladakh. Not just at the borders, but in the UN too, China is bringing up the Kashmir issue and causing issues for the Indian government. Besides, there is also an increase in militancy in 2019 than before every day we hear news of clash between army and terrorists from Kashmir, every next day an Army personnel is martyred. If we look at the early reports of 2020, the situation is bound to get even worse than before. The people of Ladhak are also complaining that the government has left them in a lawless state. They are demanding new laws to safeguard their rights.

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CONCLUSION

Today, after a year when this huge step was taken, finding normalcy in Kashmir is impossible. But after one year, we should also introspect that the aims, reasons for which government has locked the Kashmiris in their houses are accomplished or not. When you are cursing 2020 after being locked in your houses for just 4 months, citizens of Kashmir are living like prisoners in their own state for about a year. That too, without proper internet services. The topic is serious, so is the situation now. I hope all this situation is temporary and the government is having some great plans in their minds, Kashmir is ours but along with this, we should make the people living their feel safe.

Feel free to tell us what you think about the situation or you can contact if there is any query related to this through our social media handles

Abhishek Rawat

Content Writer

@DayLightMedia