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Srinagar: The Peoples’ Alliance for Gupkar Declaration (PAGD) on Friday said that claims of “development” in Jammu and Kashmir post abrogation of Article 370 as “red herring.”

“The claims of the BJP government that the abrogation of Article 370 and downgrading of a state with special status into two union territories has paved the way for new industries, created new employment opportunities, decreased terror incidents, brought an atmosphere of peace and security, nurtured democracy, eradicated corruption, brought new Central laws for the betterment of people in this region are nothing but a concocted and fabricated stories while the ground situation belies these claims,” PAGD spokesperson M Y Tarigami said in a statement to GNS.

He said the claims in a recently released report by the Union Home ministry titled “The dream of one nation, one law, one symbol fulfilled: After effective removal of the provisions of Article 370, the picture has changed: a new start in Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh” are far from the reality. “The reality is that there is a systematic disempowerment of the people of Jammu and Kashmir that is continuing to happen, through a bureaucratic rule.”

He said the projects mentioned in the booklet are mostly approved by the earlier governments but shown to have been the outcome of abrogation of Art 370. “Reality is that Nashri Tunnel, Zojilla Tunnel, the establishment of 50-degree colleges and various medical colleges are projects approved much before the abrogation of Art 370.”

On 7 November 2015, he said, Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Srinagar announced a reconstruction program during the PDP-BJP coalition government of about Rs 80,000 crore known as the Prime Minister’s Development Package, to strengthen the social-economic infrastructure and for the development of Jammu & Kashmir.

“It is claimed that after the re-organization of the erstwhile state, 53 projects of Rs 58,477 crores in J&K and nine projects of Rs 21,441 crore in Ladakh are under progress which is part of the PM’s 2015 package. How can you attribute this progress to abrogation of Art 370?”
Similarly, he said, the BJP government is boasting of implementation of various laws, like Land Reforms and RTI Act which is claimed to have been effective now. “This is a blatant lie as the State of Jammu and Kashmir was a pioneer in implementing the revolutionary land reforms laws which no other state has done except Kerala to some extent. Similarly, the erstwhile state’s own RTI Act was stronger than the Union law. Its repeal when Article 370 was read down has led to chaos and complications. Without knowing the facts of the matter, BJP leaders had maintained that the people of J&K had no access to information under the Right to Information Act until Article 370 was read down.”

On the employment front, he said, “we lag far behind and have assumed the highest unemployment proportion as compared to the pre-August 2019 period. The filling up of vacancies is a routine exercise which was being done earlier also and now attributing it to the post abrogation era is beyond our comprehension. Whichever way we look at it, the removal of special status and of restrictions on land purchase by outsiders will not add an iota of employment; on the contrary, it will most likely cause a reduction in employment in the region, even as land passes into the hands of rich outsiders from Delhi or Mumbai.

The unemployment rate is highest in India in the last 45-years and in J&K it is worse than that.”
Prior to abrogation of Article 370, he said, not only had Jammu and Kashmir kept pace with the other States in improvement in human development indices (HDI), some of the indicators pertaining to literacy rates, marriage and fertility, child sex ratios, and school attendance rates for girls over six years of age were relatively better than those for Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Jharkhand.

“The projects pertaining to strengthening of power infrastructure and flood mitigation were in execution pre-abrogation era as routine developmental activities. Similarly in the industrial sector also the present policy is nothing but a replica of old industrial policy. The credit for conception, approval, execution, and completion of Srinagar’s long-awaited Ram Bagh flyover, IIT campus, and AIIMS, Jammu goes to the earlier governments.

The BJP and the present dispensation cannot claim any credit for construction of Atal Tunnel, Jammu Semi Ring Road and 8.45 km long, new Banihal Tunnel, and World’s tallest 467-meter bridge on river Chenab.”

He said that it is really baffling and misleading to claim high moral ground in implementing the PM Kisan Scheme and PMAY. Jammu and Kashmir is getting benefitted the same way as other states and UTs. claiming to implementation of Jammu & Kashmir under Ayushman Bharat Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Scheme in which 4.4 lakh beneficiaries have been verified in this scheme, 1.77 lakh treatments have been authorized in the hospitals of J&K, for which, an amount of Rs 146 crores has been authorized.”  The simple question is what relevance it has with the abrogation of Art 370, he said. “This scheme is in vogue in the rest of India as well. So attributing this to abrogation of  Art 370 is not correct.”

One of the much-touted success stories of the NDA government has been its achievement in getting bank accounts opened for women under programs to expand their financial inclusion and gender equality, he said. “However, even before the NDA assumed power, government data reveal that significant progress was made in Jammu and Kashmir in the past decade. States were ranked on the basis of the extent of financial inclusion for women and household autonomy.”

The NFHS-4 (2015-16), which collected data on women with bank accounts, found that at the all-India level, the percentage of women with bank accounts increased from 15.5 percent in 2005-06 to 53 percent in 2015-16, he said. “In Jammu and Kashmir, the percentage of women with bank accounts increased from 22 percent to 60 percent, which, if anything, compares well with the all-India average and appears to be better than the increases in Bihar, Haryana, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Odisha, Uttarakhand, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, and even Karnataka.”

In fact, he said, the figure for Jammu and Kashmir was ahead in social indicators as that of Gujarat in 2015-2016, whose model of development has been held as a beacon by the BJP, worthy of emulation by other States.

“The slogan of “development”, in short, is a red herring. Why then has the central government done what it has? The common answer is that it has been a long-standing demand of the Hindutva elements, with an eye no doubt on altering the demographic composition of the only Muslim-majority state in the country, rather like Israel is doing on Palestinian lands,” he said, adding, “In fact, this government is the product of a Hindutva-corporate alliance, almost everything it does also caters to a pro-corporate agenda, apart from promoting Hindutva. Opening up the Kashmir Valley to its corporate patrons, not so much for expanding the volume of productive economic activities but for land acquisition for real estate development or for sheer speculation on land price, is also an added incentive. Such real estate development adds little to the level of employment, but it subtracts employment if the land was being used for some productive activities before.”

The presence of Article 370 was not an impediment in the overall development of the State as claimed by the government, he said.

“All government data and surveys indicate a marked improvement in almost all human development indices in the State.” (GNS)

Aasif Sultan – a Kashmiri journalist who has been detained under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) since 27 August 2018 – has completed three years in prison as an undertrial during which he has not been granted bail so far.

Sultan was arrested, as per the police, on suspicion of ‘harnessing known militants’, the charges that have been repeatedly rejected by his family.

The prosecution’s case against Sultan has also significantly weakened as the key witness against Sultan – Shazia Yaqoob, who is also a co-accused in the case – has denied in the court to have met or seen him.

The journalist was detained from his home in August 2018 and arrested a few days later, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ). Police filed a charge sheet against him in February 2019, accusing him of sheltering militants.

Sultan has received several awards for his work from various journalist organizations across the world. Last year, Sultan was named one of TIME Magazine’s “10 Most Urgent” examples of threats to press freedom throughout the world. He is being held at the Srinagar Central Jail.

The next hearing of Sultan’s case is scheduled for 1 September 2021, as per Sabina Akhtar, his wife.

“I am hopeful that he will be released,” she said. “With every hearing, there is hope and there is fear too of him not getting bail.”

The delay in granting bail to Sultan has saddened the family but Akhtar has been hopeful throughout. “We always think that he will be released this time but that doesn’t happen. That’s how our three years passed [waiting for him to get bail],” she said.

For the last three years of Sultan’s arrest, playing the role of both the parents for her daughter has been difficult for Akhtar. “Three years have been really difficult. Don’t even ask. It’s difficult to raise a child in their father’s absence,” she said.

A month before his arrest, Sultan had written a cover story for the Kashmir Narrator magazine on Burhan Wani, a popular militant commander whose killing in 2016 by the government forces sparked a major uprising in Kashmir that lasted several months.

According to Sultan’s editor, Showkat Motta, the police had pressed Sultan to provide his sources for the article which had included conversations with non-combatant members of Wani’s militant group Hizbul Mujahideen.

Steven Butler, the Asia program coordinator of Committee for Protection of Journalists (CPJ), in a statement in September 2018 had urged the police to “immediately release Aasif Sultan from jail and halt efforts to pressure him to reveal sources or become an informer”.

“By reporting on militant activity, Sultan is performing an important public service, not committing a crime,” Butler had said.

When Sultan was arrested Areeba, his daughter, was six months old and now she has started talking and acknowledging her father’s absence. “She is three and a half years old and she (now) knows her father is in jail,” said Akhtar.

“Areeba recognizes her father’s belongings. When a child starts growing up they start comparing their life with other children, saying they have fathers and mine is not with me. She has been doing the same.”

Akhtar added: “He hasn’t done anything. When he is innocent we will definitely have hope that he will get bail.”

Akhtar has not met Sultan for more than a year, ever since the COVID-19 pandemic led to the lockdown. “I met him in March 2020. I long to meet him,” she said.

Union Minister for Tourism and Culture and Development of North Eastern Region (DoNER), G Kishan Reddy today reaffirmed the commitment of the Government of India towards the promotion of Jammu and Kashmir Tourism and rich cultural heritage worldwide.

The Minister stated this while holding an interactive session with tour operators and various stakeholders associated with the tourism sector of Jammu and Kashmir along with the Department of Tourism at SKICC here.

Earlier today morning, Mr. Reddy arrived here as part of GoI’s public outreach program to J&K. On his arrival, the Minister visited the Tourist Facilitation Centre and J&K Tourism Information Centre.

During his interaction with different tourism players from Kashmir, Mr. Reddy discussed various avenues pertinent to tourism in the region of J&K and highlighted the importance of promotion and campaigning of J&K as a tourism destination in India and across the globe, and said that the Central Government will do everything in their domain to brand the region as an international tourist destination.

During the session, different stakeholders including tourist trade and travel, houseboat association, shikarawalas, hoteliers among others put forth their demands and issues before the Minister.

Among other issues, the tourism stakeholders sought direct flights from different cities of the country including Hyderabad, Kolkata, Chennai to Srinagar. They also demanded insurance cover in case of losses, development of new and virgin tourist destinations, better mobile connectivity at tourism places,  renovation of old hotels at tourism destinations like Pahalgam, Gulmarg among others.

The Minister gave a patient hearing to the tourism stakeholders and assured them that all their genuine issues would be taken up at the Central Government level for early resolution.

While speaking on the occasion, Mr. Reddy said that the Central Government is doing every bit to bring J&K back on the tourism map and make it the number one tourist destination among travelers, tourists, visitors once again.

He informed the meeting that the Government of India along with the UT government is putting in serious efforts to bring Mughal Gardens of J&K on the UNESCO Heritage map so that these places would get international recognition to help in increasing tourist footfall from other countries.

He said that J&K being a tourism state remains top priority for Prime Minister Narendra Modi who always pushes his Cabinet for the development of J&K.

Earlier, the Minister presided over a meeting with the Department of Tourism J&K, J&K Academy of Arts, Culture & Languages, Department of Archives, Archeology & Museums, Archeological Survey of India, heads of different development authorities, and other concerned.

The Minister reviewed the progress of tourism development projects supported by the Union Government for the UT.

The meeting was attended by Advisor to Lieutenant Governor, Baseer Ahmad Khan; Additional Director General at Ministry of Tourism, GoI, Rupinder Brar; Secretary Tourism & Culture, Sarmad Hafeez, Secretary Director, Archives, Archaeology, and Museums, Rahul Pandey; Director Tourism Kashmir, Dr GN Itoo, officers from ASI, and other concerned.

On the occasion, Secretary Tourism & Culture gave a detailed presentation and presented an overview of the Tourism scenario in the UT.

The Minister was informed about the different activities and projects being carried out in the region and the initiative taken with respect to the promotion of J&K tourism.

It was told that in the past three years many tourism festivals and events besides 2nd Edition of Khelo India Games were held at Gulmarg and wide promotion campaign is also being carried out in different parts of the country.

A detailed presentation was also given over the celebrations of 75 years of independence and in this regard, an Iconic Week celebration is being organized in both the divisions of J&K where myriad activities would be held to showcase J&K’s rich culture, heritage, food, music, etc.

On the occasion, the Minister also e-inaugurated various developmental tourism projects which include 10 bedroom tourist complex at Verinag, an Apple resort at Ladoora Rafiabad, wayside amenities at Awantipora among others.

Also, Conservation Architect & Historic Building consultant, Abha Narain Lambah gave a detailed presentation over the preparation of nomination dossier for a listing of Mughal Gardens of Kashmir on UNESCO’s list of World Heritage Sites.

While appreciating the J&K tourism for their work done during the Covid-19 pandemic, the Minister said that the UT has done a lot better than other States and UTs during the pandemic. He said J&K is progressing and moving in the right direction and Union Government is supporting the UT in every respect to take the region on uniform prosperity with rest of India.

Later, the Minster had an interaction with students of various Govt-run- Schools at Royal Springs Golf Course, who were trained in golf by The Golf Club of Kashmir.

He said Kashmir is a favorite golfing spot for tourists and the golfers from around the world and the local youth should get the maximum benefit from the beautiful golfing destinations.

He also urged the students to focus in one sport and be expert and excel and bring glory to their areas, state and country alike in the sports arena.

On the occasion, the Minister also distributed certificates among the students who completed their training courses.

Meanwhile, the Minister also flagged off Dachigam Foothills Mountain Biking Expedition from the gate of Harwan Garden.

Later, the Minister also interacted with the members of District Development Council, Block Development Council and Panchayat Raj Institutions of District Srinagar who also put forth their issues and grievances before the Minister.

The elected representatives demanded to announce a Development Authority for Harwan Block of Srinagar which houses world-famed Mughal Gardens, degree College, a hospital in the area, playground, and other tourism related facilities.

The members said that the area has a huge tourism potential as the area possesses traditional trekking routes to central and southern parts of Kashmir which can give a fillip to tourism and subsequently generate employment in the area.

While addressing the members, the Minister said J&K has a three-tier Panchayati Raj System in place due to the honest efforts of PM Modi who wants to empower the grassroots democracy in the country.

He said that J&K is one of the shining examples in the whole of India where the three-tier Panchayati Raj system is working successfully and people themselves are identifying, executing, and monitoring works at level, block, and district level.

Praising the ‘Back to Village’ program in J&K, Mr. Reddy said that earlier people used to visit different offices and run pillar-to-post to get their grievances addressed but now the whole administration is at their doorsteps to get their issues resolved promptly.

He added that J&K is now reaping benefits like the rest of India with all the centrally sponsored schemes and other initiatives and is playing an important part in the overall development and progress of the whole country.

Later in the evening, the Minister also visited Nishat and Chashma Shahi Mughal Gardens