JAMMU: In recent days, a lot of time has been spent in Delhi, Srinagar and Jammu in reviewing the security situation of J&K, with a single-lens goal to make this territory terror-free . A number of new and old threats have been put on the table and solutions searched thereof.
This was part of the serious exercises that the Centre and the UT administration led by Lieutenant Governor have been undertaking in the past few years.
These review meetings have conveyed one clear message that the Centre is not fully satisfied with the situation that prevails in Jammu and Kashmir, despite 70 per cent decline in violence and drastic reduction in the rank and file of the terror groups. It is pursing the goal of perfect peace for Jammu and Kashmir. It wants to cover the whole of the ground to reach a stage where there is no terror and there also remain no chances of its recurrence. Controlling violence and making its elements accountable under the law is just part of the goal, the real objective can be achieved only when there is no scope left for the revival of terrorism.
NEWS ANALYSIS
Union Home Minister Amit Shah has been looking after Jammu and Kashmir affairs ever since he took over his office in 2019, and particularly so after the abrogation of Article 370, which coincided with the split of the state into two union territories in August 2019 . Though J&K and Ladakh became the union territories on October 31, 2019 but in all practical terms they assumed their new geography on the political map on August 5, 2019 itself. That is the reality and irrefutable one.
Amit Shah chaired the security meets in Delhi, while Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha did so in Srinagar and Jammu. These meetings covered almost everything under the sun about the situation and the security needs of J&K, and a strong message got conveyed that the Government will do everything possible to preserve the security canvas that it has crafted in the past five years, and continue to work for making it a permanent land of peace with no trace of violent extremism left in any of its corner.
When Home Minister convenes the review meetings, it holds special strategic significance. It adds seriousness to the purpose and injects hope among the people that their worries were being taken care of at the highest level. Practically speaking, MHA is playing a very important role in J&K , politically, psychologically and strategically, not just that this is a UT but because this territory has become a reference point for the renaissance of Viksit Bharat.
In the past five years, the country viewed and acted in Jammu and Kashmir in a manner never seen before. On the physical and psychological plane, Jammu and Kashmir was seen as a three-region entity, having their own aspirations but drifting in different directions. A sort of identity crisis had arisen. Ladakh wanted to be a UT, and the governments were risk-averse as they feared some of the imagined consequences, which they believed could set off fissiparous tendencies. This fear was projected by the politicians, who thought that giving UT status to Ladakh would mean undermining their influence and their capacity to bargain. Separatists played it up in terms of the large area involved in conflict .But the Modi government took this decision and reduced the perceived area of conflict.
Today, Jammu and Kashmir is a success story that the country has weaved in its narration. The central theme is that normalcy, the stepping stone of the UT’s journey to peace. That would open doors for the development, which had been missing in K&K ever since independence. The Centre accepted its accession in 1947 and also sent army to rescue it from Pakistani invaders, but Kashmir was always thought as a place where the conflict was seen as a companion. All things changed on August 5, 2019, in terms of the constitution making it a really integrated part of the country with no ifs and busts. But the real meaning to the constitutional changes was given by invoking sense of oneness among the people.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister have dedicated themselves with absolute devoting to make Jammu and Kashmir great again.
There, however, is a consistent campaign front across the border, Pakistan, to reignite disturbances. It is pushing in terrorists and terror- related material to keep the things disturbed. Unfortunately, there are some of the disturbing things happening in Kashmir as well. The anti-India elements are busy in spreading disaffection and distributing material on social media and print literature to hamper the positive trajectory.
The review meetings have taken all this into account. Newer strategies have been worked out to neutralize the men and women behind such anti-national activities and narratives. This was needed and that’s what the Home Minister and the LG have done.