Shah Faesal, who had left the Indian Administrative Serviceto join mainstream politics in Jammu and Kashmir, has said that New Delhi’sdecision to scrap special status and bifurcate it and two Union territories is“a demise of the political mainstream in the state” and “a slap by the Indianstate on the face of all those people of J&K who sought a resolution to the(Kashmir) conflict within the parameters of the Indian Constitution”. “I see itas a catastrophic turn in our collective history, a day when everybody isfeeling that it is a death knell to our identity, our history, our right to ourland, our right to our existence. A new age of indignation has begun fromAugust 5,” he told The Indian Express. Faesal, the first Kashmiri to top theIAS in 2009, resigned from the service earlier this year and set up J&KPeople’s Movement with an aim to join mainstream electoral politics.

Putting 8 million people under incarceration, unprecedentedcurbs on their lives, shutting down the entire communication system, and abrazen show of might of the state and giving out a message that we are ready tokill thousands of youth for the sake of this assimilation is extremelyworrisome,” he said, referring to the current lockdown in Kashmir.

 “Political mainstreamhad the argument that we are going to protect the special status, that thereare still ways of maintain our cultural identity, our political being withinthe Indian union. This government has demolished that argument because theJ&K state has been demolished; those constitutional guarantees have beendemolished,” he said. “It is the extremist side that will get traction now —those people who always believed that Indian state would never be honest andsincere with the people of Kashmir. It is their win today, no matter how sad itmay feel.”

Faesal said that the “real consequences of this step will beknown when the curfew is lifted. Once it starts sinking in and people start toface the consequences of these drastic steps, day to day incidents ofindignations start happening and people feel their land, their identity haveactually been taken away from them, I think it is then when the realconsequences of this government’s decision would be known. I am scared thatKashmir might enter a new phase of conflict, which we have never imagined.”Stressingthe “need to mount a people’s resistance against this government’s decision”, Faesalsaid, “It is going to be a protracted resistance to recover what has beenstolen from us in broad daylight.”

About Article 370, he said it had been “hollowed to someextent in the last 70 years and become some comforting fiction”.

“But this shell still protected a Muslim-majority state thathad acceded to India in 1947 based on a few conditions completely against thespirit of the Partition that time when it was expected that J&K, aMuslim-majority state, would actually accede to Pakistan. We had neverimagined, I mean the entire political leadership of Kashmir, that such adevastating step would ever be taken. We believed the Government of India hadlearnt from the mistakes of the past.”

He continued, “In 1953, when the Prime Minister of J&Kwas arrested by a junior police officer, that incident alienated the generationof our grand parents. In 1987, when the elections were rigged deliberately, ourparents’ generation was alienated. Now this is going to further alienate thenew generation of Kashmir. It represents an unprecedented betrayal with thepeople of Kashmir, breaking down all those agreements on which thisrelationship had come into existence between the Union and J&K.”

He said that the scrapping of special status and bifurcationof J&K has been termed “Operation Kashmir”, adding, “It is being seen as anact of conquest, and you talk to anyone in Kashmir today, they are saying thisis the real face of subjugation. The Indian state has finally thrown its gloveout and shown its real face to the people of Kashmir. Everybody in Kashmirbelieves this is forced integration, which is never going to work.”Faesal saidthe government’s targets in Kashmir today are those who believe Kashmir’sfuture is in India. “The worst part of this Operation Kashmir has beenincarceration of mainstream leaders and discrediting of mainstream leaders —firstly by building a narrative of corruption around the political mainstreamwhen you know there have been far more corrupt politicians holding high officesin the country and we know how investigating agencies have dealt with them. Atthe same time, there has been a wilful demolition of democratic institutions inthe state. It was done first by delaying elections for a long time and now byrevoking statehood and removing special status,” he said. “It reflects atotally bleak future, a new dark time for the state.”He said the J&Kreorganisation Bill is full of problems. “Delimitation will be now done at thewill of the Lieutenant Governor, an unelected nominee of the Centre. Sodelimitation will also be aimed at disempowering the majority population.Ladakh is already dissected out of Kashmir even as we know Kargil is opposingit. Even in Jammu, a senior BJP leader Nirmal Singh (former Deputy CM) has saidthey will ask for some domicile status like Himachal Pradesh to preserve landrights.”

Referring to the apprehension of a demographic change,Faesal said, “When demographic changes are brought about with a design todisempower a certain population or deny their rights on their land or done throughmilitary oppression, then you feel extremely sad about it because it is againstthe will of the people.” Faesal, the first Kashmiri to top the IAS in 2009,resigned from the service earlier this year and set up J&K People’sMovement with an aim to join mainstream electoral politics. (File Photo)

Faesal said the local bureacrats and police officers feel“extreme alarm and extreme sense of upset”. “I have been talking to my recentcolleagues. They feel something very wrong has been done to the people of J. Itis about identity finally.”

The former civil servant said, “The first thing to go is thestate flag, which represented a certain historical promise we had made to thepeople. There are memories and struggles associated with that state flag andwhen it goes down, it takes with it the identity of all those institutions whichwere associated with it. What happens to the state services, what happens tostate government employees? The police won’t be reporting to the electedexecutive. This means a conversion of this J&K state into a police andmilitary Union territory. Even in the last couple of days there are instancesof bullying of local population by central forces. They were being taunted andjeered. A sense of defeat is being communicated to them.”

Faesal said it gives “a feeling of occupation now. And it issad that somebody who believes in the Constitution and who thought that wewould get some remedy from the Constitution – this comes from his mouth. Forthe last couple of days, I am getting so much abuse on social media fromKashmiris who have been telling me that you are the people who were telling usthere is some hope left with India and the Indian Constitution can give usanything. Today you saw the real face of India. It is sad that we don’t haveany answers.”

The treatment meted out to J&K should worry the entirecountry, he said. “If it is with us today, it can happen to any other statetomorrow. There has already been a hue and cry in the Northeast… This idea ofturning India into a monolith, eliminating all protections to people who havebeen provided those protections by the founding fathers of this Constitution,is going to be detrimental to India.”