A steady erosion of faith in Indian democracy by a large number of Jammu and Kashmir people had led to the unending turmoil in J&K. Comment. (200 words)
Refer – The Hindu
Enrich the answer from other sources, if the question demands.
IAS Parliament 7 years
KEY POINTS
· Hindu communal forces, led by the Jan Sangh, began agitating from 1950 for the removal of Article 370, which was seen as a threat to the Kashmiri identity.
· This had a major psychological impact on the Valley’s population which marked the beginning of internal strife.
· While Mr. Sheikh Abdullah became Kashmiri Prime Minister in 1951 (the head of the Kashmiri state was called PM then), his government was dismissed in 1953.
· He was also imprisoned by the Nehruvian government on the suspicion lobbying internationally for creating an independent Kashmir.
· For two decades after that, New Delhi rigged elections and appointed its own proxies as Chief Ministers, eroding the valley’s faith in Indian democracy.
· While the Indian state was engrossed with Pakistan’s foray in Kashmir, it failed to rectify its meddling in the valley’s polity, which strained its legitimacy.
· An agreement reached between PM Indira Gandhi and Sheikh Abdullah in 1975 granted some autonomy to the valley and did promise a new beginning.
· But with Abdullah’s death and his son Farooq’s rise, the India government under PM Rajeev Gandhi soon backtracked and the progress was stalled.
· These actions eroded the legitimacy of the Abdullah clan, which was the face of moderate Kashmiri sub-nationalism and provided impetus to extremists.
· The elections of 1987 were openly rigged in order to diminish the anticipated performance of the extremist party “Muslim United Front” (MUF).
· But this action contrarily increased the popularity of the MUF, and people came to the streets and subsequently took to arms from 1990 onwards.
· In the midst of this internal churn, Pakistan, unsurprisingly threw its weight behind the proponents of “Free Kashmir”, although it was against its stand.
