The mess in J&K

Several years of gains in J&K have been wiped out over the last two months. Life had begun limping back to normal; tourists were beginning to make a welcome appearance in J&K after several years and it looked on the surface that some kind of “new normal” would be achieved. All that was destroyed by Ghulam Nabi Azad’s mindless idea of transferring land to the Amarnath shrine. In the IT industry, “ownership” and “usage” are increasingly being segregated. After all, you don’t need to own a computer network or an application to get the benefits of using it. If you pay the owner for its use, you are just as well off. OK- forget technicalities like depreciation of an owned asset and so on- you get the picture, I am sure. Similarly, why does the Amarnath shrine need to own the land to provide yatris with various facilities and amenities? Surely, the government of J&K can provide these amenities without worrying about who owns the land.

The resulting tussle between Jammu and Kashmir has only served to give the hardliners in the region (both sides) a fillip. Deliberately (or unwittingly), J&K’s political leadership has played right into the hands of the hardliners. Today’s agreement notwithstanding, I am not sure how long this temporary peace will last. Make no mistake, it is only temporary. With Pakistan going through its own internal turmoil, the rising temperature in J&K provides an ideal environment for mischief-mongers on both sides of the border.