ARTICLE 370:ONE YEAR LATER(J&k)

J&K: ONE YEAR LATER 

ARTICLE 370:ONE YEAR LATER

Greetings, friends!Each time that I've felt that the government has taken a decision or come up with a policy that directs the country on the path of progress Be it the policy on renewable energy or the Swachh Bharat Abhiyaan I have openly supported these things Today, I would like to talk about another such policy Removal of Article 370  it is the 5th of August. It has exactly been one year since the government took this decision which was branded as a "masterstroke" by several people I had supported this decision as well Now, I would like to do an analysis on what the consequences of this decision are, one year later and what is the result of all of this? Come, let us see You might have noticed in your life that the blind supporters of the government declare all the big decisions taken by the government to be a "masterstroke" Be it demonetization, GST or the removal of Article 370- all of them were declared "master strokes" But have you noticed, that they always brand those decisions as masterstrokes that are instantaneous actions? No body talks about what the consequences of the instant actions are or how it is implemented as well The same happened in demonetization- it was hailed as a masterstroke in the beginning that it would remove corruption and other tall claims were made- but two years later it was found that this had pushed the country into economic crisis Then they stopped talking about it and no one speaks about it anymore They only refer to it as being a masterstroke back in that moment No body talks about it after that The same seems to be happening with the decision to remove article 370 One year ago, everyone said it was a masterstroke and tall claims were made about all that it would do But the conditions one year later- the situation is somewhat the same as the demonetization decision One year ago, when I had supported this decision, it was because the government had claimed that doing this would make the state of Jammu and Kashmir more integrated into India The people living in Jammu and Kashmir would be granted the same rights and privileges that are enjoyed by the citizens living in the rest of the states The Indians living in Jammu and Kashmir would be given similar opportunities that are enjoyed by the Indians living in the rest of the states Both investment and economic growth would be on the rise in Jammu and Kashmir Everyone would be able to buy land/property there and Kashmiri Pandits would be able to go back to their city All these things were promised to us This is the reason why I had supported it But what are the conditions today? Ever since this decision has been taken, the state of Jammu and Kashmir has been in full/partial lockdown The same lockdown that was experienced by us too after the breakout of COVID19 But even the internet is shut down over there For some months, the internet was completely shut down and after some months the government allowed it but only at the 2G speed Even today, the 4G internet speed is not available in Jammu and Kashmir Think about what implications it has Most of the people are resorting to online classes and online exams owing to this lockdown But what would be the plight of the people living in Jammu and Kashmir? How would they be able to attend online classes and sit for online exams? Because the 2G internet speed barely allows for streaming of  articles Firstly, more than 10 lakh students were unable to attend schools and colleges when the state was on lockdown When the lockdown was removed, COVID19 broke out and everything was shifted online Now, they are unable to study online These students have lost out on atleast one year of education And then you say that they would be given the same privilege that has been granted to the rest of the Indian states Is this how the Indians residing there are going to be educated? Let us take help of a little comedy and sarcasm to understand the conditions prevalent in Jammu and Kashmir -Do you see this shop? It was named "Prash Mobile shop" earlier Today, the neighboring radio owner has bought over this shop There's Prash- Come, let us talk to him -Come buy smartphones! Google Pixel is free with Oppo. Iphone is free with vivo! A dozen for 100 rupees! Come, buy smartphones -A dozen for 70 rupees! Come, buy smartphones -A dozen for 60 rupees! -Why are you selling smartphones at such throwaway prices? -There was a time when people used to stand in long queues outside my shop Ever since the internet has been banned here, no body even comes to buy a memory card , sir! Would you like to buy a memory cars, sir? Its 5 for 2 rupees! -What do you think the people here have to face because of the internet ban? -Don't know much about the people, but the NASA people came here and took away some engineers -Why? -They say that the imagination power of the engineers here have become too sharp because of the internet ban especially at night -What do you think about the future? -I feel that without technology, we are going to get transported to the Stone Age in the future The people are going to use stones to make fires and use leaves to cover themselves -That's all for today! I'm reporter Ninja with cameraman Hathori Thanks to Youtuber AngryPrash for this example Let us now take a look at some data Has the economic development that was promised with the removal of the article 370, been realised? In December 2019, the Kashmir Chamber of Commerce and Industry took out a report which stated that due to the lockdown imposed in the state, there has been a difference of 15,000 crores on the economy of Kashmir that is, the economy of Kashmir suffered a loss due to this That was the statistic until December 2019 In the period between August and December 2019, there have been around 5 lakh job losses in Kashmir The tourism sector took the biggest hit of 9,000 crores with more than 74,000 job losses because no body would like to go there for tourism with the entire state under lockdown Albeit, it was promised that the people would be able to go buy land there! They would be able to buy land and property and be able to shift there Did anything of that sort happen? Talking specifically about tourism data, then there has been an 86% of reduction in tourism in Kashmir In July 2020, a report by the name of "The Impact of Lockdown on Human rights" was released which has been compiled by a civil rights group- the Forum of Human Rights This group includes famous people like former Indian Supreme Court judges and former Indian foreign secretary This report states that the Jammu and Kashmir economy, by July 2020, which is roughly one year has faced a loss of around 40,000 crores since the revocation of the article 370 In both the factors of social and economic development, have seen a complete failure since the revocation of the article 370 It was promised that these things would get better- but even the status quo could not be maintained Conditions are worse than what they were before taking this decision Had this decision not been taken, the state of the economy of Jammu and Kashmir would have been better Atleast the people of Jammu and Kashmir would have had access to internet and basic education Atleast they would have been going to school and the tourism industry would be functioning normally But today, all of these thongs have been completely wrecked Now, some of you would counter me by saying that it is important to restrict the internet in order to prevent the terrorists living in Jammu and Kashmir from talking to one another This logic is widely used But in mu opinion, this logic is malarkey. I'll tell you why First of all, communication can happen over the 2G network as well, pretty easily For that, it makes no sense to restrict the 4G speed The terrorists from Pakistan would still be able to communicate because the internet there is still up Third- What's the logic behind restricting the entire internet by giving the excuse that this is being done for security? Going by this logic, the government should also ban cars on the roads or else the people would get killed in traffic and car accidents They should put a blanket ban on cars to save the lives of the people But is that realistically possible to do? Because we use cars in our day to day lives and to run the economy Similarly, the internet too, is used for these things and it should not be restricted completely Therefore, this logic doesn't really make sense This is why all of us should raise our voice that the government should atleast, first of all, start 4G internet so that the children are able to attend schools and the people can do their work Or else, this is no less than an injustice and deceit being done with the state That you promise them economic development and education a and then do the exact opposite in reality I have only talked about Jammu and Kashmir until now, but a similar situation has been witnessed in Ladakh as well Ladakh was made into a union territory after the revocation of Article 370 The people in Ladakh were supportive because they had thought that the government would put special focus on them They'd be given more rights, privileges and representation when they would become a union territory But one year later, the people are not happy because the government has not given what the people were expecting For example, Jigmat Paljor, the President of the Ladakh Students Welfare Society said that he had expected that jobs would increase and more of the local youths would be employed but nothing of that sort has happened so far The basic demand of the people in Ladakh is the protection of their jobs, lands, environment and culture Or else, it can get degraded very easily Not a large amount of people can live in the location where Ladakh is based The area is a very ecologically sensitive one So special laws be made to protect the environment there If it is easy to buy land over there for the Indians from the rest of the states, then this would lead to the destruction of the environment there In the end, I'd like to put three questions before you First- Is Jammu and Kashmir truly better integrated with India now? Second- Do the Indians living in Jammu and Kashmir have the same rights and privileges now as the Indians living in the rest of the states? Third- After the revocation of article 370, have the people living in Jammu and Kashmir seen better economic and social development? in comparison with the time before the revocation of Article 370 Think about these three questions Look ahead of the "masterstroke" of this instant action- Have we truly achieved what we were trying to achieve? Have we secured the result that we wanted to? Some people would comment and say that the problems of 70 years cannot be solved in one! To them, I'd like to say- Think about it- If you cannot solve the problem, then atleast do not make it worse! Decisions that aggravate the existing problems should not be taken Do not improve the situations, atleast let the status quo remain But things are going from bad to worse here I hope you would have found this  article informative. Share this  article and raise the demand for 4G internet in Jammu and Kashmir so that the same rights are available to the Indians.

Thank you!