Former cabinet minister Yashwant Sinha.
The situation in Kashmir has turned worse than it was two years ago, and the gap between the rest of India and the youth in the Valley has increased, a civil society group led by BJP leader Yashwant Sinha, which recently visited Kashmir, has said in its report. The Concerned Citizens Group (CCG) had met some prominent political parties, office-bearers of J&K Bar association, civil society representatives, from Srinagar, Anantnag, Shopian and Pulwama towns, college students and civil society representatives in Kupwara, north Kashmir, during their three-day visit from August 17.
“The most disquieting conclusion of the interactions… this time was that… the sense of dismay and despondency in the people had grown,” the report observed. “The proximate reasons for this not only seemed to be lack of dialogue with Kashmiris but also because tourism had plummeted, hotel business was in dire straits, there was flight of capital and an overall economic downturn leading to greater unemployment.” Besides Sinha, the group comprises Air Vice-Marshal Kapil Kak (Retd), executive director of the Centre for Dialogue and Reconciliation Sushobha Barve, and senior journalist Bharat Bhushan.
Stating that there has been an increase in alienation between the Kashmiri youth and the rest of country, the group said even people who “used to talk reasonably earlier were using the language of the militants and separatists”. It reported “all-round opposition to attempts to revoke Article 35A” as “people see attempts to change rules for special rights of people of J&K as an existential threat of changing the Valley’s demographic profile”. But the aazaadi demand has “neither disappeared nor become secondary”.
