‘India not a totalitarian State, so let the imagined ghost of demographic change not float as a phantom.’
New Delhi: Mir Junaid is the president of Jammu Kashmir Workers Party. A political activist and a writer, he writes for many international papers and magazines. The outspoken Junaid is an alumnus of the law school of Kashmir University. He can be reached on Twitter @MirJunaidJKWP. Mir Junaid spoke to The Sunday Guardian.
Q: How do you see the situation in Kashmir post the abrogation of Article 370? How have things changed?
A: Abrogation of Article 370 was a political decision as the Article had lost its relevance; its abrogation has cleared any lingering doubts/questions about the integration of the erstwhile Princely State of Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) with the Indian Union; integration was brought about at the request of its Maharaja, Hari Singh—immediately after the Pakistan army-led tribals invaded Kashmir—who signed the Instrument of Accession with the then Government of India (GoI).
Materially, things have changed in the sense that now investors from outside are eligible to invest in the Union Territory (UT) of J&K and this in itself is going to boost business and job opportunities for the educated/semi educated youth leading to meaningful growth in per capita income and expenditure of the locals.
Simultaneous abrogation and declaration of J&K and Ladakh as two separate UTs has helped restore peace and calm in the region and has also ignited hope in the people for a better future; stone pelting routines and frequent calls for market closures have ceased to be; GOI has initiated many infrastructure development projects and UAE is also going to invest in a big way in the region. So, optimistically, one can expect people to be more prosperous in the years to come.
Q: In Parliament, Amit Shah promised normalcy after the abrogation was carried out. Do you think normalcy has returned to Kashmir?
A: It’s not just about Kashmir, it’s about Jammu and Ladakh too. Pakistan’s vicious religion-based political propaganda based on falsehoods has reduced the concerns/aspirations of the whole population of Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh to just that of Kashmir, and the whole world seems to have fallen prey to Pakistan’s propaganda either because they remained uninformed of the historical facts or that they had their own political axe to grind.
The situation is pretty much normal on the ground; people are doing business as usual; no harassment by the security forces and intelligence agencies as they are 24×7 vigilant about the terror groups and their sleeper cells in the UT of J&K. There is no restriction on the movement of the people, but no anti India slogans/activities are being allowed/ tolerated. It’s not just about India it’s about every independent sovereign State not to tolerate, much less allow, activities inimical to its integrity.
Internet connection and social media are available unrestricted; the politicians known to foment trouble in society are being observed without causing any harassment to them. It is the imperative to politically neutralize such politicians.
Q: How do you see the current civilian killings that are being carried out in Kashmir?
A: That’s what I said that politicians known to foment trouble are to be politically neutralized. Those who identify themselves with Pakistan, based on commonality of their religion, have always been active to implement Pak’s agenda in the region. Change in the Domicile Law allows outsiders to invest and buy property in the UT; the gullible are being told that demographic change is imminent and tomorrow if not today Muslims are going to be reduced to minority in the Valley. The same very politicians during their rule schemed to convert Hindu majority Jammu region to a Muslim majority one, and they nearly did so over the seven decades of their rule.
Such politicians have always been in communication with the terror groups and therefore they instigate such killings, under the imagined threat of demographic change, to chase out the non locals from the Valley and thus render the new Domicile Law infructuous.
Another dimension to such killings is that they are killing local non Muslims as an integral part of their jihad against the non believers.
While the security forces are neutralizing terrorists who carry out such inhuman acts, politically also efforts are going on to make their masters irrelevant to the cause of the UT of J&K and Ladakh.
Q: Why is government planning to resort to delimitation? Do you feel it is aimed to change the voters’ weight via demographic changes?
A: Firstly, let it be absolutely clear that no demographic change is being thrust on the region. India is a democratic State that believes in human values and political rights not inimical to the integrity of India, of the people. It’s not a totalitarian State, so let the imagined ghost of demographic change not float as a phantom. Given that the Muslim population in Kashmir Valley is more than 97% of the total, it’s going to take a few millennia before any such change happens; moreover, such of those who may invest and do business here are not going to be in millions seeking foothold in the Valley, it may be in a few dozens and even if they settle down here, there shouldn’t be a worry for “demography experts”. The investors could be Muslims, for all one knows.
Delimitation is necessitated to correct the regional imbalances in the UT of J&K as perpetuated deliberately by the ruling mafia under the cover of Article 370. The erstwhile state of J&K has more than 150 ethnic groups and a vast majority from among them has no political rights in that they have no say in the legislations brought and passed in the Assembly. So, it is the attempt to restore balance in the representative character of the elected Assembly of the UT of J&K. No wholesale population movement from one region to another in the UT of J&K is being proposed or planned; so there is no need to worry about voters’ weight via demographic changes.
Q: Do you think mainstream politicians are losing relevance on the ground?
A: Mainstream politicians were and continue to be the front end of the terrorists and all that is anti India; excel in doublespeak; their political narrative in Kashmir is different from the one in Jammu and then on to the one in Delhi. They are equally, in fact more responsible for traumatizing and dehumanizing the Kashmiri society, as while they continued to be in league with the separatist Hurriyat Conference and their masters in Pakistan, they simultaneously misled GoI about the emerging political situation in the Valley.
The formation of the UT of J&K has, to an extent, freed the people from the iron grip of these so called mainstream politicians. Yes, their individual hold on the ground has weakened as was evident during District Development Council elections; they collectively participated in the elections and won an appreciable number of seats which may be indicative of their grassroots support in the UT of J&K. Yet they can’t be taken lightly and political churning is going on, which may throw up new political outfits to challenge the hegemony of the discredited fossil mainstream political parties.
Q: Internet curbs, frisking, two civilians killed by CRPF, crackdown on press—do you think GOI is widening the gap between the public and the administration?
A: All those curbs including crackdown on press were in place for some time post the abrogation and declaration of J&K as a UT. India has two neighbours, one of them is mentally sick and the other one is a bully and a totalitarian State. The mentally sick one is always on the prowl, awaiting half a chance/quarter of a chance to create unrest in the Valley and the “mainstream” is ever willing to sing their tune. So it becomes imperative to restrict communication links to a basic minimum.
Frisking becomes a routine in a place torn asunder by more than three decades of sponsored terrorism; it may be easy for an observer to comment, but one stuck in the ever slipping ground underneath only works out a way for survival. Pre 1998, the situation was not like this. Any political analyst/observer need to be very careful about the starting point (the initial conditions)/basis of his/her observations. No sovereign State offers sandwiches to the insurgents or invading army. Those who scheme to hurl bombs in public places have to be tracked down and hence frisking becomes important.
This “increasing the gap between people and administration” is the politics of blackmail that the “mainstream” politicians successfully played for 70 long years. No innocent, law abiding citizen is harassed by the investigating agencies as a rule. There may be cases of bad judgement, but then they don’t define the rule.
Playing victim card is another art mastered by those who incessantly plan anti India activities and so one has to be very careful before making any judgement on the obtained situation.
Q: When do you think Assembly elections will take place?
A: It may be two years before any Assembly elections are held in the UT of J&K. The delimitation process is bound to face obstacles from “mainstream” politicians as it threatens to reduce their hegemony in the region. In any case, no citizen is dying to have elected representatives in the Assembly as the LG’s rule is being much appreciated as was Governor’s rule in the erstwhile state of J&K and Ladakh. This is because the elected representatives never delivered on their promises, whereas the LG is more approachable to a citizen than a Chief Minister ever was.
Q: How do you see recent detentions? Nearly more than 500 youths were detained ahead of the Home Minister’s visit to Kashmir. Do you think these measures will further alienate the youth from the government and its process?
A: This “alienation of youth” theory has been the basis of the politics of blackmail indulged in by the “mainstream” parties only to extract more and more funds from the Central government and went on for more than 70 years.
The detention of 500 youth was the outcome of raids by the National Investigative Agency (NIA) post day to day targeted killings in Kashmir and this exercise was the outcome of a high level meeting the Home Minister (HM) had held in New Delhi with the National Security Advisor and the concerned UT officials. That the HM was to visit Kashmir during that period turned out to be a coincidence. The detentions were not made anticipating any sloganeering against the HM, but as a planned activity based on the said meeting to find out the handlers of targeted killings and their future plans. There are many sleeper cells in Kashmir and the LG administration is slowly but surely weeding them out for ensuring rule of law and peace in the UT of J&K.