24 diplomats visit J&K in third delegation since Art 370 move
Envoys, officials visit Srinagar amid spontaneous shutdown; DDC members say weren’t allowed to meet them
A group of 24 foreign envoys began a two-day visit to Jammu and Kashmir on Wednesday under a government initiative to showcase efforts to restore normalcy and boost development in the Union territory formed in 2019 after the erstwhile state was divested of its special status with the effective revocation of Article 370 of the Constitution.
This is the third group of diplomats to visit Jammu and Kashmir since January 2020 and the first since the government’s efforts to take envoys to the region was interrupted by the Covid-19 pandemic. The visit has been organised following the conduct of District Development Council elections in Novemberdecember and restoration of 4G internet earlier this month.
The group includes European Union (EU) ambassador Ugo Astuto, and ambassadors of key European states such as French envoy Emmanuel Lenain, Italy’s Vincenzo de Luca, Sweden’s Klas Molin, Ireland’s Brendan Ward and Marten Van den Berg of the Netherlands.
The neighbourhood was represented by Bangladeshi envoy Muhammad Imran.
People familiar with matter said on condition of anonymity the group represents various geographical regions such as Africa, South America and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean), and included envoys of Brazil, Cuba, Estonia, Finland, Tajikistan, Portugal, Malawi, Eritrea, Cote d’ivore, Ghana, Senegal, Malaysia, Bolivia, Belgium and Kyrgyzstan.
Tight security arrangements were put in place for the visit. A spontaneous shutdown was observed in Srinagar, and all commercial areas were closed.
Soon after their arrival in Srinagar, the envoys headed for Magam in Budgam district on the outskirts of the city, where they met DDC and panchayat members and local residents. The envoys also witnessed “Block Diwas”, a public outreach organised every week by the local administration, and were briefed on people-centric schemes being implemented by the government.
“The visit to Budgam provided the envoys an opportunity to interact and hear directly from the public and local representatives about the functioning and empowerment of grassroots democratic institutions, devolution of power, developmental activities, and grievance redress mechanisms,” said one of the people cited above.
The DDC chairman of Budgam, Nazir Ahmad Khan, who met the envoys with a group of DDC and panchayat members, said he briefed the group about the panchayat system and the recent DDC elections. “I expressed appreciation for the civil and police administration for the peaceful conduct of the elections and the restoration of grassroots democracy,” he said.
The envoys spent more than an hour at the Degree College in Magam. However, a group of DDC and panchayat members of the PAGD were not allowed by the administration to meet the envoys.
“We are also elected members but we were not allowed to move out from our rooms to convey our viewpoint to the envoys,” said a DDC member from Budgam, requesting anonymity.
In the afternoon, the envoys met different groups at the Shere-kashmir International Conference Centre (SKICC) on the banks of the Dal Lake.
The group also visited the Hazratbal shrine and met journalists in the evening to make a first-hand assessment of the situation. A cultural event was also organised for the envoys.
The president of the Kashmir Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Shiekh Ashiq, said his organisation didn’t receive any invitation to meet the envoys.
Security was tight across Srinagar, and especially around the SKICC, where the envoys held their meetings. The spontaneous shutdown in the Kashmir Valley began shortly before the arrival of the envoys. No group had issued a call for the strike.
This is the third batch of diplomats to visit Jammu and Kashmir since the government scrapped the region’s special status in August 2019 and split it into two union territories — J&K and Ladakh — in an effort to improve governance, boost development and tackle crossborder terrorism.
The first two groups visited Jammu and Kashmir in January and February 2020, and plans to send a batch of envoys from EU states last year were put on hold because of the pandemic.