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Filing this brief dispatch with utmost difficulty: situation is calm in Kashmir, but there is a certain uneasiness. Curfew is not strictly enforced. Restrictions in place, but civilian movement is allowed. A few shops are open as well - fruit sellers, ice-cream vendors
The main window to New Delhi remains satellite TV. Last night a TV channel claimed there is green zone for journalists. That is wrong. Journalists are able to move freely, even without curfew passes. They are living in hotels all over. There is NO green zone.
If one wishes one can report from anywhere, even outside informal ‘press enclaves’. Some people are unhappy, but some people are happy as well. They wish peace returns to Kashmir now, violence is over, and Kashmiris can live normal life
I saw some comments about many Kashmiris not knowing what has happened in Parliament yesterday. That is bullshit. Everyone knows about it. They are talking about it at every corner. People have been able to come to Srinagar this morning from South, North
Everyone I spoke to has heard Amit Shah’s comments carefully. Even those who are against UT decision now hope that some industries will open up, some normalcy will return.
There is a lot of anger against mainstream political parties. There is a general opinion that the leaders courtes detention as a face saver so that they have something to tell aam Kashmiris
There is a lot of anger against local mainstream parties. The general opinion on the street is that leaders have courted arrest as face saver so that they have something to tell people later
Kashmir is not gone. It is not lost. Many are unhappy, but many do not have the luxury of expressing their opinion freely about New Delhi’s decision. Give them time. Not all of them come to TV studios.
Some anger may spill out on streets, but there will be no apocalypse even after curfew is lifted. Lot matters on New Delhi’s direction in Kashmir in next few months. Get the industry to Kashmir. Let people realise that the idea of India is largely a benevolent one
Many I spoke to have also noticed crackdown against corruption. Countless stories float around, of state-enabled corruption, of how politicians and their inner circle took all malaai. From subverting system, by giving impression that without them Kashmir will cease to be India
Last tweet. My journalistic dispatch will have more details. Rage against the “dying light”, do that. But let some rejoice over the death of dying hypocrisy. Remember Kashmiris who lost life for the idea of India. Many of them remain unsung.
