Consider the larger picture: Abrogation of Articles 370, 35A will help integrate the Valley | The Indian Express

Consider the larger picture: Abrogation of Articles 370, 35A will help integrate the Valley | The Indian Express

Written by Sarjan Shah |Updated: August 12, 2019 7:40:52 am

Shah is an alumnus of London School of Economics, Cambridge and Harvard, and lives and works in Mumbai

Consider the larger picture: Abrogation of Articles 370, 35A will help integrate the Valley

Only in the creation of long-term order, can we ever hope to have truly substantive justice for the people of Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh, who, I can say with the utmost conviction, are better off with us than they ever could be with our dear neighbours.

There can be no doubt that the Indian state has spent more than 70 years attempting dialogue, cultural exchange and even rehabilitation of separatists and militants.

Even more than the obvious economic benefits of expanded private and public investment in the territories of the erstwhile state of Jammu & Kashmir, the government’s moves on Articles 370 and 35A shall strike at the heart of the festering politics of the Valley. Far from actually protecting any rights or privileges of the local people (who, if the critics are to be believed, have been living in tortuous circumstances under the jackbooted heels of Indian “occupation forces”, even while having the proverbial shields of 370 and 35A), these temporary and conditional provisions of the Indian Constitution only served to extend and exacerbate an environment in which the people of the Kashmir valley felt an “otherness” towards their fellow Indians from the rest of the country.