J&K: Has the trust of 70 years gone?

Srinagar/Baramulla/Shopian: Perhaps the only set of people in the Kashmir Valley pleased with the Narendra Modi government’s revocation of autonomy are the adherents of the Jamaat-e-Islami, an influential religio-political outfit which believes in merging with Pakistan, and which is now expected to command greater attention than before.

Otherwise, the reaction in the Valley can be summed up by a disgusted journalist in the north Kashmir town of Baramulla: “We are back at 1947”. (Identities have been kept secret to avoid dire consequences.)

And now they are asking whether the choice that they had made in 1947 needs to be revisited. “It has been an illusion,” they say.

With Sheikh Abdullah marshalling popular opinion, in 1947 Kashmiris put their faith in secular India rather than Islamic Pakistan, although the latter continued to attract the allegiance of a small section since then. With the revocation of Article 370, this section has now come alive.

The speech of Pakistan PM Imran Khan at the UN General Assembly last month elicits nothing but praise. A young woman lawyer said: “The Pakistan PM spoke about the crisis that hit us after August 5 — the jailing of thousands, the communications blackout. He is the only one who spoke about us. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, on the other hand, spoke about ‘shauchalya’ (toilets) at the UN! He could have talked about peace, but didn’t.”

A north Kashmir villager who gets by as an electrician said: “Imran Khan has his own interests. We understand that. The people of Kashmir have never been with Pakistan. The show of Pakistani flags at protest rallies, unless the Jamaatis are involved, is only to cock a snook at New Delhi. But now we realise India is not a friend. The trust of 70 years is gone. What was the need for all this? We have been made fools. God knows what the future holds.”

Mr Khan’s speech has appealed even to those who did not hide their pro-India sentiments in a conflict zone. This lot seems to have swung to the side of “azadi”, a word with wide connotations, the most common being freedom from military searches and the all-pervasive military presence that hits day-to-day life and wounds the dignity of people.

Crudely etched in Urdu on a side of the wooden table in a lawyer’s small office in Shopian in south Kashmir, the Valley’s most disturbed district, where a killing took place hours after I departed, is the lament “Ghulam Kashmir” (Kashmir enslaved), encapsulating feelings in the wake of August 5.