Separatist camp in disarray, supporters bewildered
Jammu and Kashmir’s separatist camp has been in a state of stagnation since August 5 last year when the Centre cancelled the special status and downgraded the state by bifurcating it into two Union Territories.
Even the key faces in the separatist camp, who would earlier rule the roost and whose writ ran large over vast sections of Muslim population, mainly in the Valley, have miserably failed to play any predictable or even customary role in Kashmiri politics during past one year. This has pushed the entire separatist camp in disarray and its supporters in public dispirited and bewildered.
Weeks after the Centre moved harshly on J&K, it was widely rumoured in the Valley and beyond that some of the separatist leaders who were among those detained around August 5 signed bonds to secure their release.
As also reported by sections of the media, the detainees, mostly politicians from both mainstream and separatist camps, were offered to be released by the authorities on the condition that they sign the bond, agreeing to cease their political activities.
Even after the lapse of one year, the separatist leadership remains in the doldrums, unable to guide their supporters on the issues they would insist on being a ‘matter of life and death’ for Kashmir and its people.
Their issuing guarded statements occasionally is like ‘one swallow does not make a spring’, as was put by a supporter. He asserted,
“They have betrayed us.”
The BJP calls the jumble and the killing of over 250 militants including a couple of dozen top commanders in security forces’ operations since August 5 last year a “big achievement” of the Modi government. It also says that it has broken the Kashmir jinx.
Independent watchers, however, say the government’s brutal policies towards J&K have, on one hand, only decimated proIndia constituency in the politically sensitive Valley, and, on the other, proliferated a young generation of diehard legacy and that to handle it might not be an easy task ahead.
The not-so-good human rights situation in J&K has already prompted various international organisations and, also some countries other than Pakistan and its allies, to call for corrective measures.