Amidst turmoil in the rest of the country a ray of hope emerges in the winter chill as troops are cut and football brings cheer.
In her Christmas address to the British people, Queen Elizabeth described 2019 as a “bumpy year”, her reference obviously being to the Brexit pangs experienced by her nation. For India in general and Jammu & Kashmir in particular, 2019 has indeed been bumpy. The tumultuous victory of BJP in the general elections has been followed by its reverses in Vidhan Sabha polls in state after state, the latest being in Jharkhand. National pride, which was exalted in the wake of the Balakot airstrike on terror training camps run by Pakistan following the Pulwama outrage in February has been hurt by the nationwide unrest in recent days in which youth and students have been taking to the streets against a decision of the Parliament of India. Lack of effective communication has resulted in rumour and innuendo pervading reason.
In the midst of the negative news clouding the newspaper columns and hogging air time on national television, two developments in the northern tip of the country have been overlooked. On Christmas day the Union government announced that based on ground reports from J&K it was withdrawing 72 companies of paramilitary troops from the valley. Additional forces which had been deployed following the unrest which ensued after the 5 August decision to abrogate Article 370 and bring J&K fully into the national mainstream are being reduced. This amidst reports in the past fortnight that shops are now opening and internet cuts notwithstanding, normal life is limping back in the season of Chilai Kalan—the annual 40-day period of severe winter chill when snow engulfs the terrain.
On Boxing Day, 26 December, the adage “Battle of Waterloo was won on the playing field of Eton” gained relevance in J&K, when its home-grown football team, Real Kashmir, defeated reigning champions Chennai City in a national I-League match held at the TRC turf ground in the heart of Srinagar, just a little away from the picturesque Dal Lake, which is frozen at this time of the year. Real Kashmir has been a formidable side in the national league (its players represent India in international fixtures) and its victory on home turf, cheered by supporters who had come from across the valley acted as a morale booster for people who have been living through arduous times. The joy was summed up by Sandip Chattoo, the promoter of Real Kashmir club, who told the media after the match, ”It was more than a game of football and winning for us”.
Apart from football, there is good news from the agriculture fields of J&K as well. Thanks to policy changes and largesse of weather conditions, saffron growers in Pulwama, Budgam, Srinagar and Kishtwar are smiling. They are getting a better crop and enhanced price. The farmers got direct linkages to buyers in other parts of India and abroad, cutting out traditional middlemen and this coupled with better irrigation technology, access to latest cultivation practices and financial incentives from the government have brought cheer. The apple growers have suffered as their crop could not be moved in heavy transport due to disturbances in October and November; saffron consignments moved out of the valley in small vehicles.
The positive developments in J&K perhaps show that decisive action, which may seem unpopular ab initio, may yield desired result. Abrogation of Article 370 was on the agenda of Jan Sangh since 1952 and BJP deciding to implement its stated agenda after having won a decisive mandate in 2019 is understandable. Similar may be the case with the present imbroglio on citizenship across the country. While the steps taken in August and in December by the Modi government with the sanction of Parliament of India may be steps in the right direction, the inability to communicate effectively on the run-up to these decisions and in their aftermath has left much to be desired. The absence of an effective communicator like Arun Jaitley or an affable Sushma Swaraj—the two leaders whom the nation lost during the course of 2019—is reflected in the inefficacy of elucidation by the ruling establishment. The present scenario of disturbed conditions across the nation has transformed the political landscape which had emerged since Narendra Modi’s triumph in 2014. An accommodative attitude of the ruling party, especially towards its allies, many of whom are sounding uncomfortable, is called for.
BJP’s march to being India’s party of governance began in May 1998 when an all engulfing National Democratic Alliance was launched at a function held on the lawns of 7, Safdarjung Road, which was then the residence of Atal Bihari Vajpayee. The alliance had parties ranging from Nagaland to J&K, from Punjab to Tamil Nadu. According to one survey, had BJP not lost its ally AJSU, Raghubar Das regime could have bagged 40 of the 81 seats in Jharkhand. Congress by playing second fiddle has regained ruling party status in Maharashtra followed by Jharkhand. In politics, arrogance and insensitivity are negative tools. It is a game of equals, in which the big brother has to accommodate and adjust.