Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, July 20: In its latest report on Jammu and Kashmir , the Concerned Citizens’ Group is claimed to have observed disconnect between politics, state and people in the Valley and opined that nothing short of restoration of statehood would serve to calm the public somewhat.
“It seems that the people of Kashmir Valley now have virtually no expectation either from the people of India or from the state machinery in Delhi and Srinagar. They have come to believe that there is no political space left for them, their rights have been taken away and that no one is inclined to listen to them,” observed the Group during its Kashmir visit from July 5 to 7, 2021 for ascertaining mood of the people in valley after the all party meeting called by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on June 24.
During the visit, the CCG members met leaders of political parties, including Farooq Abdullah, Omar Abdullah, Mehbooba Mufti, Mohd Yusuf Tarigami and Muzaffar Hussain Baig, civil society activists, representatives of trade bodies etc.
According to CCG, people in Kashmir expressed apprehensions that the ongoing delimitation exercise was part of the overall process of political disempowerment of the people of Jammu and Kashmir. The Group observed that people’s mood was marked by lack of expectations from the State, a pervasive sense of hopelessness not witnessed earlier.
The Group witness that the sequencing of the Union Government’s three-step process of delimitation, statehood and elections had assumed pronounced salience in the UT. “In discussion with people across the socio-political spectrum, the impression we gathered was that nothing short of restoration of statehood with the same powers as in other major states of the Union, would serve to calm the public somewhat,” observed CCG.
Quoting locals alleging `Baburaj’ in J&K where bureaucrats are kings and the common people suffer as there is a lack of accountability, the Group has also observed resentment against the Government decision on abolishing 149-year old Darbar Move practice.
The CCG, comprising Yashwant Sinha (former Union Minister), Sushobha Barve (Executive Secretary, Centre for Dialogue & Reconciliation, Delhi), Wajahat Habibullah (former Chairman of the Minorities Commission of India), Air Vice Marshal (Retd) Kapil Kak and Bharat Bhushan, independent journalist, is a non-official voluntary group acting as a bridge between the people of J&K and the rest of the country.
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