Thread by @GorwayGlobal

Tweet thread on #Kashmir #Article370 #Constitutional changes.
I fear the travails and tribulations of the people of #JammuAndKashmir will continue for a very long time before they get better. The changes wrought on 5 August 2019 by #ModiSarkar2 are driven by ideology and politics

They are not driven by pragmatic considerations of what is good for the people of that troubled region of India. #ModiSarkar2 argues that with the special status gone development beckons and a new dawn starts. What they don't explain is what about the previous regime prevented it

Much will depend on how the changes are implemented but the very manner in which they were pushed through Parliament, the various sleights of hand and specious legal tricks, and the deployment of troops to #lockdown Kashmir - all these bode ill for the future

I'll focus on violence and development. As @ajaishukla argued it is not that the military lockdown stops us knowing what the citizens of Kashmir think. The troops and the lockdown was necessary bec we KNOW what they think.

Almost certainly #Pakistan's men of violence will stoke trouble, and they've just been joined by a new recruiting sergeant - the #JammuAndKashmirReorganisationBill2019 .
Law and order will now be under the Union Home Minister in New Delhi. That should scare you.

Expect tough - really tough, take-no-prisoners - policing. Of the sort pursued by Israel's #IDF in #Gaza. More troops on the ground will mean greater use of force. Expect more instances of torture, brutality, contempt for civilians and custodial deaths. sascv.org/ijcjs/pdfs/Deo…

Here's the abstract of the paper I quoted above:

Just as the IDF regard Palestinians as 2nd class citizens undeserving of human and civil rights, so too the Indian security forces regard Kashmiri citizens as undeserving of the Constitutional protections of rights under the law.

Ironically there's been no talk of scrapping #AFSPA. The Constitution of India applies to Kashmir now - the J&K Constitution stands annulled like those 500 and 1000 bank notes in 2016. No longer is there a special status for Kashmir but #AFSPA still applies.

Each new act of humiliation, brutality, violence, torture and custodial death will recruit yet more young men to the separatist cause. Each new act of militant violence will lead to a yet tougher police response. Kashmir will see the cycle of violence Gaza has experienced.

Now to Development. That is the promise that #ModiSarkar2 holds out. Kashmir's strength is its great natural beauty, tourism and agricultural produce. #Tourism is big. it's also fragile, it depends on a reputation for safety peace and stability.

So where is the investment to come from to promote tourism and agriculture? Investors look for stability and certainty. They head for the exits if they see civil strife and violence. Tourists, especially foreign tourists, are spoilt for choice and shun any violence-prone region

The visible presence of machine-gun wielding soldiers suggests violence not tranquility. It may reassure the visiting Political dignitary but it does not inspire confidence in the tourist. In a supreme irony, Amarnath Yatris were summarily asked to get out of Kashmir.

To conclude, this action on Kashmir's Constitutional position was a 'cynical political decision' (@ajaishukla's words). It was done by subterfuge and machination; done TO the people most affected, not with them; it needed troops to lock the people up in their own homes.

It does nothing to counter separatist tendencies. It does everything to encourage the men of violence, in cahoots with support from #Pakistan, to further stoke the flame of #Azadi. Kashmir is in for a long and unhappy period of violence strife and pain.

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