The policies and political projects being pursued by the BJP-led central government in Jammu and Kashmir post-August 5, 2019 — when the erstwhile State’s seven decades-long special constitutional position came to an end — have put unarmed and innocent civilians in the crosshairs of armed militants in Kashmir like never before.
There is an unprecedented push from New Delhi to achieve BJP’s ideological goal to turn the homogenous complexion of the Valley into a heterogeneous one, a bid to end the long-protected nativism of the people of the Kashmir Valley. For many in the BJP, a cosmopolitan Kashmir may bring a final settlement to the political problem brewing in the region since Partition.
The framing of new liberal and permissive laws is premised on the grant of land, jobs, citizenship, voting rights and industry, and it has been mainly to woo outsiders, including investors from Muslim countries such as the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
