J&K: Confusion prevails as life limps back to normalcy

For Showkat Ahmed, a grocery store owner in a prominent marketplace in Srinagar, November has finally brought “some signs of good business.” With the shutdown shrinking in Kashmir with each passing day, now his shop remains open from morning till 3 pm when the shutters suddenly roll down and market goes off for the day.

Over a hundred days after the revocation of the special status of the erstwhile of Jammu and Kashmir state, life has started limping back to normal in Kashmir. Call it fate of coincidence, soon after Girish Chandra Murmu was sworn in as the Lieutenant Governor of union territory (UT) of Jammu and Kashmir on October 31, much to the surprise of many, life started getting back to normal in the militancy infested region, with the three months of shutdown, fading away fast.

After the Modi government in its historic decision, scrapped the special status on August 5, Kashmir had largely volunteered for a shutdown. Interestingly, no militant or separatist outfit had given call for the shutdown.

Since the UT came into existence situation is apparently improving fast. While shops and other commercial establishments remain open for most part of the day, the public transport is also operational whereas the local train service has also been restored. The examinations for the various institutions have been going on smoothly with almost 99% attendance.

But then, amid this improvement in situation, people of Kashmir sound confused and equally worried about the future of this uneasy calm.

A Kashmir University student on the condition of anonymity said return of normalcy is “only optics.” “It’s only a lull before the storm because had it been normalcy our university would have opened for class work, but the reality is that government is apprehensive of letting students assemble,” he told DH.

For the last three odd months, the government has laid numerous restrictions like enforcement of Section 144 that bans assemblage of more than four people. The enforcement has been no strict that public assemblages were even not allowed for religious events like Bakr-Eid and the recent birth anniversary of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) in the Muslim dominated region.

“Let me tell you, this bubble of normalcy can burst anytime,” says Farooq Kaloo, a former bureaucrat turned social activist.

“Given the unusual restrictions, people are fear-stricken and unsure about future but then the government is equally confused. If government was prepared to face fatalities, it has failed to tackle uneasy calm Kashmir. And the promise of development post abrogation of special status is nowhere visible as the administration is not concerned towards addressing public woes the way it used to be in the past,” he added.

Political analyst Majid Hyderi, who is among the prominent faces on TV debates on the national media opines that “Kashmir has been caught by chaos because it has become a leaderless.”

“The public response to the situation arising in Kashmir has been spontaneous as no leaders ever guided them on way forward. It has been peoples protests led by chaos and thus the future of the situation is confusing,” Hyderi added.

Amid the unusual improvement in situation in Kashmir, the internet clampdown and the detention of some of the top mainstream leaders including three former Chief Ministers - Farooq Abdullah, his son Omar, and their rival Mehbooba Mufti, seems to be among the key issues that keep “Kashmir away from normal life.”

The separatist leaders on the other hand have been maintaining silence. Interestingly, while the former CMs are behind that bars, Kashmir’s head priest and senior separatist leader Mirwaiz Umar Farooq has been living at his cozy villa on the banks of Dal lake.