Congress Responsible for Decades of Turmoil in Jammu & Kashmir

 

 

From fomenting secessionism and cronyism through promoting corruption and driving the region into the morass of terrorism that it became under the Congress’ rule. Congress’s decades-old policy in Jammu & Kashmir is derived from a series of terrible choices that have deeply marked the state.

 

The Congress party also entered into alliances with local political entities like the National Conference, which only helped secessionist ideas to be deeply rooted year after year. The Congress party, however, since the 1980s has faced allegations of fraud, especially in Kashmir, where support for Farooq Abdullah’s National Conference was also viewed as undermining democracy.

 

Under this alliance, corruption and nepotism rose to new heights, especially during the tenure of Rajiv Gandhi, when political power was being monopolised by a few families instead of the welfare of people.

 

The 1989 parliamentary elections provided a potential turning point in the history of Jammu & Kashmir. The Congress joined hands with the National Conference, which antagonised the public, leading to widespread resentment that eventually resulted in militancy.

 

The abduction of Rubaiya Sayeed, daughter of then Home Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed, and the release of militants in exchange for her freedom was a grave error that emboldened terrorist groups but demoralised security forces.

 

The 1990s saw terrorism go out of control in Jammu & Kashmir—fully the result of Congress’s moronic policies. The party’s mishandling of the dynamic was to claim tens of thousands of lives as well as vacate Kashmir Valley completely from its original settlers, the Kashmiri Pandits.

 

During this time, there was indecisiveness, and the Congress had no coherent way to combat terrorism, which made situations even worse by the absence of any counter-terrorism strategy.

 

The pieces of land in Jammu & Kashmir are still haunted by the legacy of Congress's misrule. Article 370, though abrogated by the present BJP-led government with an eye on greater integration with the rest of the country and ushering in stability and development in Jammu & Kashmir, scars of the past are still very much mitigating. Decades of neglect and appeasement policies of the Congress have resulted in deep-seated problems that take time and continuous efforts to solve.

 

Jammu and Kashmir has witnessed massive changes in the last few years under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The nullification of Article 370 has released new forces of productive energy, which will help fuel the regional economic revival as well as its eventual and intended unplanned absorption into the national mainstream. The BJP's emphasis on development, eliminating discrimination, and security is delivering hope to the people of Jammu & Kashmir.

 

The Congress party mismanagement of Jammu & Kashmir has been one capital contributor to its turmoil for decades together. And while fostering separatism in the region, it has also been a part of allowing corruption to flourish.

 

 

Sub Editor, The Narrative