The recently concluded visit of Union Home Minister Amit Shah, his first since the special status of Jammu & Kashmir under Article 370 was suddenly revoked in August 2019, has just been one more addition to the long list of disillusionments as except rhetoric nothing came out of it. Shah’s claim that since the abrogation of Article 370 and dismemberment of the state into two Union Territories, J&K has made progress is nothing but a hoax.The Home Minister’s visit was preceded by an arrest spree, restrictions, undeclared snapping of internet services in several areas, seizing of thousands of two-wheelers and booking of youth under draconian laws like UAPA and PSA which is instructive of the continuing volatility in the Valley.The several security reviews that Shah presided over during the visit were testimony to the challenges in Kashmir, belying his and other ministers’ assertions that “terrorism ended” on August 5, 2019.Through a series of restricted public engagements and official functions in Jammu as well as in the Valley, the Home Minister’s single-minded focus was reiterating the BJP’s political narrative on Kashmir.Throughout the visit, he also wanted to hoodwink the people of the country and blow the trumpet of so-called normalcy in Kashmir. But his ‘normalcy narrative’ stands punctured already due to the recent civilian killings in the Valley and one of the longest anti-militancy operations in Poonch district of Jammu region, where nine army soldiers, including two officers, lost their lives.
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