Srinagar: The shift in discourse in Jammu and Kashmir during 2025 represents a watershed moment in the region’s political and social narrative.
People in the past used to speak of separatism as a reality of life that cannot be shied away from. Separatism was central to Kashmir, and violence had become an unavoidable reality in the lives of the people. The slow, but steady transformation of idiom and metaphor started in 2019 with the abrogation of Article 370 and the determination of the Central government to call the bluff of separatism once and forever.
Year 2025 is the year of fruition for that gradual change the Central government has brought about in the situation guided and supervised by a no-nonsense Lieutenant Governor (L-G) Manoj Sinha. He has guided the course of anti-terror operations much beyond dealing with just the gun-wielding terrorist. He has wisely been able to strike at the very root of terrorism by adopting a holistic approach that aims at dismantling the complete support system of terrorism.
The L-G has, after detailed investigation and sufficient evidence, terminated government employees from service who formed the support system of terrorists in Jammu and Kashmir. People possessing no arms or visible credentials of being terrorists worked for various terror outfits, providing them with logistic support, ferrying arms and ammunition for them and providing hideouts and safe houses to sleeper cells of terrorists.
Labelled as overground workers, these anti-nationals mingled openly with people, attended political gatherings, were part of public welfare programmes and still they were the eyes and ears of the terrorists. The so-called political platform of separatism called the All Parties Hurriyat Conference (APHC) was surprisingly made up of unions of government servants, lawyers, doctors, religious organisations and social organisations. The terrorist programmes were widely publicised and made effective through the APHC. Naturally, the APHC stood to give political and social legitimacy to separatism and thereby to street violence.
In 2025, even a remote association with APHC was denied by its constituents, and most importantly, even those heading the banned APHC in the past have given up their claim of having led the APHC, as the powerful and influential separatist leader Mirwaiz Umar Farooq did recently. APHC has not only become ineffective, but it has also become defunct, with almost all its constituents denying association with the separatist conglomerate.
Kashmiris have understood after more than three long decades of suffering and uncertainty that separatism breeds violence and violence eats its own children. Schools, colleges, universities, professional institutions, tourism, horticulture, industries and handicrafts are the new temples of modern Kashmir. People are sending their children for higher studies and competition in various fields to different places in the rest of the country.
Public discourse has completely changed and exhibited itself in 2025 more vehemently than ever before during the last 15 years.
The April 22 terrorist attack in Baisaran meadow of Pahalgam by Pakistan-backed Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) terrorists left 25 innocent tourists and one local pony owner dead, but it sent out a subtle and clear message to the perpetrators of violence in Jammu and Kashmir. People rose spontaneously from the Kathua district in Jammu division and in every district of the Valley, condemning the terrorist attack with one voice. Such a public outburst against violence was noticed for the first time in 2025, and it left nobody in doubt that the patience of Kashmiris with Pakistan-sponsored terrorism had completely run out.
Kashmiris, from the man on the street to the economically better off sections, all had only one message — You can’t continue the bloodshed in our land. We have suffered enough.
For the first time after many years, no official nudging or persuasion was there from the government to encourage such public protests against terrorism. Kashmiris had risen against terrorism, sending a clear message that they had finally decided to condemn those advocating violence.
While the authorities unearthed the conspiracy and zeroed in on those two locals involved in harbouring the killers, locals had no sympathy for anybody helping these merchants of death and destruction. Kashmir turned a glorious chapter to reclaim its roots of tolerance, peace and brotherhood in 2025, and the public determination showed it on the streets, in religious, social and private discourse.
The discourse of peace has finally affirmed itself in 2025, and it is for religious, social and political leaders to keep the discourse on and make it stronger in the years to come.
Year 2025 has broken the stalemate, and peace and progress cannot be denied to people who have come out of the clutches of exploitation and diktats of forces inimical to normalcy in Jammu and Kashmir.
(IANS)
