NEW DELHI: India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi highlighted the freedom of Kashmir on Thursday as he made his first visit to the valley’s main city of Srinagar since New Delhi stripped the disputed region’s special autonomous status in 2019.
The semi-autonomy of Jammu and Kashmir was granted by India’s constitution until Aug. 5, 2019, when the Indian government unilaterally revoked the relevant provisions under Article 370 and scrapped the region’s flag, legislature, and inherited protections on land and jobs.
While the move was widely welcomed across India, many Kashmiris have been on edge since, after authorities introduced a slew of measures that critics and residents fear could engineer a demographic change in the Muslim-majority region, such as allowing non-locals to settle and vote.
“Jammu and Kashmir is touching new heights of development today because it is breathing freely,” Modi said in a speech at the Bakshi stadium in Srinagar.
“There was an era when schemes for welfare of the poor were implemented across the country, but our brothers and sisters of Jammu and Kashmir were deprived of the benefits. And see now, how the times have changed,” he added. “The talent of the youth of Jammu and Kashmir is getting properly honored today as there is no Article 370 now … today, everyone has the same rights and opportunities.”
Indian-controlled Jammu and Kashmir is part of the larger Kashmiri territory, which has been the subject of international dispute since the 1947 partition of the Indian subcontinent into Hindu-majority India and Muslim-majority Pakistan.
Both countries claim Kashmir in full, and rule in part.
Indian-controlled Kashmir has for decades witnessed outbreaks of separatist insurgencies to resist control from the government in New Delhi.
With the constitutional change, Jammu and Kashmir was split into two federally governed union territories — Ladakh and Jammu-Kashmir. The move was followed by a total communications blackout, severe restrictions on freedom of movement and detention of local leaders — some of whom remain in jail.
The 2019 decision, which the government claimed brought a new era of “peace and development” in the region, was upheld by the Indian Supreme Court last December.
With Modi’s visit on Thursday, the streets of Srinagar were filled with patrolling security forces, while most schools in the city were shut for the day. Authorities have reportedly called on government employees to attend Modi’s rally, an event seen as part of his campaign ahead of national elections scheduled for April and May.
“I don’t mind the government reaching out to Kashmiris in an honest way to reduce the trust deficit. But the absence of the common people from the PM’s rally demonstrates a deep trust deficit and sense of hopelessness among the people,” Srinagar resident Aijaz Ashraf told Arab News.
“The valley might look calm but there is a constant sense of anxiety and tension because of the unaccountable behavior of the security forces. There is no attempt to engage the people of the valley at a personal level,” he said. “Through force, you can’t achieve anything. You have to win the trust of the people — only then you can think of genuine progress.”
After 2019, government employees were “forcibly mobilized to paint a pretty picture that all is well,” said Mehbooba Mufti, former chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir.
“This visit is only meant to address and drum (up) support amongst the BJP’s core constituency in the rest of India for the upcoming parliament elections,” Mufti wrote on the social media platform X, referring to India’s ruling party Bharatiya Janata Party.
“Kashmiris know that everything spoken at Bakshi stadium will be to showcase the so-called benefits of the illegal abrogation of Article 370, akin to putting salt to their wounds.”
