Ambience in Srinagar much more mistrustful, tense than earlier: CCG

The Concerned Citizens Group (CCG), which recently visited Kashmir, has said that ambience in Srinagar was much more mistrustful and tense than during its earlier visits and there seemed to be a pervasive air of uncertainty at the level of the political leadership and on the ground.

The group, including Executive Secretary, Centre for Dialogue and Reconciliation, Delhi's Sushobha Barve, former Minorities Commission chairman and the first Chief Information Commissioner Wajahat Habibullah, Air Vice Marshal (Retd) Kapil Kak; and journalist Bharat Bhushan visited Jammu & Kashmir from March 20-25. Former External Affairs Minister Yashwant Sinha, who is the chief of the group, couldn’t visit this time.

The visit came in the backdrop of the Delimitation Commission making its report public which led to considerable consternation amongst the political parties in the Union Territory (UT), especially in Kashmir Valley and in the immediate aftermath of the release of The Kashmir Files, a film on the exodus of Kashmiri Pandits from the Valley in 1990.

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The group said during its meetings with political leaders, civil society and business organisations at both Kashmir and Jammu, they assessed their perception of the current social and political situation in the UT.

The notable leaders the group met include National Conference president and former chief ministers Farooq Abdullah and his son Omar Abdullah, Peoples’ Conference chairman Sajjad Lone and CPM leader Mohammad Yusuf Tarigami.

The group in a statement said that people in Kashmir feel a “terrible isolation which has been thrust upon them impacting their minds". It said that people whom they interacted with told them that they avoid calling each other and don’t meet each other.

“A common refrain one heard was that Kashmiris traditionally were slow to react to momentous changes affecting their lives and this time around as well it was no different,” it said.

Quoting an unnamed politician, the group said, “A political leader claimed that as long as Delhi pressed only political buttons -- removing the provisions of Articles 370 and 35A, bifurcating the state, fiddling with the delimitation of constituencies -- Kashmiris would do nothing.”

“They will do nothing even if there were a Hindu chief minister from Jammu. If, however, the Centre presses religious buttons -- interfering with prayers in mosques, banning Hijab for women or anything that seems to be preventing religious practices -- then Kashmir will erupt. Otherwise, life would continue as usual despite the political diminishing of the Kashmiris,” the statement quoting the leader said.

Quoting another unnamed business leader, the CCG statement said, “Hatred has gone deep. Even if the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) loses the 2024 general election, it won’t go away.”

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On the militancy, the group said it felt that while the security forces continue to eliminate armed militants, not everyone (in Kashmir) believes the claims that militancy has been controlled.

“A common perception in the Kashmir Valley was that militancy would continue -- not so much with militants being sent across by Pakistan but with local recruitment. There is a palpable distancing from India amongst the youth,” the statement added.

On delimitation exercise, the group quoting locals said it had created communal division as well as anxiety by virtually pitching Jammu against the Kashmir Valley.

“There are apprehension that before the elections, the Centre would use all kinds of tactics to divide the PAGD (Peoples’ Alliance for Gupkar Declaration, an alliance of several regional parties of Jammu & Kashmir aimed at restoring the special status and rights of residents of the erstwhile state),” it added.

A recurring theme during this visit of the CCG, the statement said, was ‘The Kashmir Files’ which was being officially promoted at various levels in the Central and state governments ruled by the BJP.

“Almost everyone that the group met had strong views about the possible impact of the film on the politics of Jammu & Kashmir as well as that of rest of India. Civil society groups conveyed to us that the film -- more ‘reelty’ than ‘reality’, as a leading academic put it -- seeks to slander, vilify and delegitimise the Valley’s majority community’s own pain and suffering of three decades during which period tens of thousands of youths were killed,” the group added.

The CCG even claimed that in the aftermath of abrogation of Article 370, a sense of disaffection had seeped in Jammu as well. “As anger, frustration and disillusionment set in post August 5, 2019, Jammu became virtually a city of protests. The Bandh call given by the Jammu Chamber of Commerce and Industry was backed by lawyers, transporters, labourers and others throughout the region was unprecedented,” it noted.

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