Two days after the Parliament effectively revoked Article 370 which gave special status to the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir, and split it into two union territories, Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressed the nation on Thursday, 8 August, justifying the move.
Bharat Karnad from Centre for Policy Research and Michael Kugelman of Woodrow Wilson joined in on a discussion with BloombergQuint’s Kaushik Vaidya on the road ahead after Centre’s move on Kashmir.
The erstwhile state was split into two union territories -- Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh.
PM Modi laid down the aspect of development as one of the key factors while justifying the decision on J&K. However, was his speech convincing for those under security lockdown?
Karnad argued that the message is that people don’t need be apprehensive about the new status of the union territories. The prime minister also stated that revocation of Article 370 will do better to the people directly affected.
According to Michael, the promise of development might not make much impact on the people of the valley.
“The prime minister really tried to paint this decision as something that will benefit the people on the ground because of development and access to education and it is true to some extent. But these people will not be appeased by the promises of development,” he said.
He further added that the issue of development is not the biggest grievance for the people in the Kashmir valley, but it is the what they see as unacceptable heavy-handed tactics of the Indian security forces.
“It will be a lot more difficult to win those people over,” he said.
(At The Quint, we question everything. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member today.)