An Old step towards a new J&K

Recently the PM met with the Jammu and Kashmir political parties delegation. This move comes after nearly two years of presidential rule with the former state’s special status being taken away, the controversial Article 370. This meet comes at a time when most of the valley leaders have been released from jails and house arrest and the LOC is relatively calmer thanks to the diplomatic channel being restored between India and Pakistan. These talks took place when there is deepened trust deficit and non existence of a communication channel between New Delhi and the local leaders. This may also signal that the government taking a step back given the invitation to Gupkar infamously termed as a ‘gang’ during the run-up to the local bodies election by the Home minister.
A major motive behind this move is seen as a reverberation of the government motto of “sab ka sath sab ka vikas”. Having placed 3 former chief ministers in jails for months Modi government was back to its ways of image management. The whole theme created around this meet was to show how inclusive the PM and HM were while the National media portrayed it as the same age old larger than life Modi who reached out to his political opponents keeping aside all the differences. Both the pm and hm described this meeting as a historic step towards restoring democracy in the now UT.
Post the meet the Kashmir’s leaders echoed in once voice the sheer unhappiness and dissent towards Delhi over scrapping the article that still prevails in the minds of Kashmirs. The regional heavyweights welcomed the step and also expressed how important it is to have elections and restore democracy back in the valley. Though no false hopes were given about bringing back 370 but full statehood was reiterated as an ultimate goal, which now may seem far and distant. Evidently the hm has been of the opinion that the formation of union territory is a temporary arrangement and the state would be given back its autonomy over due course of time.
Both the sides did try to make most of this opportunity and tried scoring some political points as well over the issue of delimitation which of course did gain some traction in the media as well. All and all this was seen as a welcome move but would have made much impact had it been done before the 5th of August 2019, before the decision was implemented.
Sriyash