The legal challenge to Article 35A, which protects the demographic composition of Jammu and Kashmir, has brought all sides of the political spectrum, barring the BJP, together. Tampering with it has the potential of setting the Valley ablaze once again.
A SEMBLANCE of normalcy seemed to be returning to Jammu and Kashmir this year, despite intermittent lapses into violence such as the skirmishes that claimed nine lives on April 9, the day when elections were held for the Srinagar parliamentary seat. But if things appeared to be settling down, a new issue has cropped up to agitate emotions: that of Article 35A.
The unrest of 2016, besides leaving nearly 100 people dead, thousands wounded and many people blinded as a result of pellet injuries, had badly hit the State’s economy and education. Tourism, which too continues to feel the impact, touched its lowest ebb this year.
The coalition government led by Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti has been in the thick of fighting new-age militancy as the number of local youths joining the ranks of militants swelled up alarmingly. The Valley was rocked by agitations in 2008,2010 and again in 2016. Now, it seems ready for another battle as the people fear that Article 35A, which has been challenged in court, must be saved and that its possible abrogation will have dangerous consequences for the Valley. The perceived threat to Article 35A has not only brought together arch rivals in the State’s mainstream political parties but made separatists join the bandwagon of saving Article 35A “at any cost”.
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