Kashmir was in a mess before move on Art 370: Jaishankar

NEWYORK: External affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Thursday said that Kashmir was in a “mess” before August 5, the day when India revoked Jammu and Kashmir’s special status.

He asserted that the decision was taken to “try something very different” to change the economic and social landscape in the region.

During an interactive session at think-tank Council on Foreign Relations here on Wednesday, the minister said when the Modi government was voted back to power in May, it did a Kashmir review and realised that there were two choices before it.

“One was you had a set of policies, which were on the books for 70 years, but for the last 40 years they were visibly not working,” he said, adding that the other was to abrogate Article 370.

“Please remember that pre-August 5, Kashmir was in a mess...the difficulties there have not started on August 5. So the choices were either you continue what was clearly not working, or you tried something very different. And the decision was to try something different,” he said. “Now we realise (that) it’s not an easy exercise, because there are deep vested interests which will resist. Our first concern was that there would be violence, that there would be demonstrations and terrorists would use those demonstrations,” he said.

The minister said the restrictions put in place in J&K after the abrogation of Article 370 were intended to prevent loss of life and as the situation stabilises, “a lot of those restrictions would be rolled back”.

The landlines are reconnected, mobile towers have started to be switched on, schools are open and economic activity has picked up, he said.

“For us, the primary concern would be to prevent loss of life. And if I were to put the temporary suspension of internet on one side of the scale, and permanent loss of life on the other, I know which side I would go,” Jaishankar said.