Certain media houses in their quest to promote the narrative of status quo lobby that situation in Kashmir has worsened post abrogation of Article 370 are projecting misleading data to justify the narrative but the data is far from truth lamented Brig Veteran Anil Gupta, Spokesperson of Bharatiya Janata Party in a press release issued here today. The data is being attributed to home ministry officials while no such data is hosted on the official website of the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA). The report reads, “The security situation in Kashmir Valley has not improved. Too many locals are still joining the ranks of terrorists despite the growing number of encounters, becoming a huge concern for security forces operating in Kashmir.”
The above unauthenticated statement is contrary to the statement of Director General of Police J&K made during a press conference held at Handwara in North Kashmir on August 20. In his press conference DGP had claimed that during the last seven months about 26 top terrorist commanders had been killed, the infiltration rate has decreased and recruitment of youngsters into militant ranks has come down, clarified Brig Gupta. The official figures given by JKP state that infiltration has come down by 50%, 50% decline in killing of security forces personnel and 73% reduction in law & order cases. Also it is claimed that the percentage of local recruitment fell to 5% during the period August – December 2019 and has remained less than 13% during the last seven and half months while the earlier average rate of local recruitment was more than 14%, stated Brig Gupta. By no stretch of imagination it can be construed as worsening security situation in Kashmir.
The motivated propaganda is unleashed by those who are interested in keeping the pot boiling in Kashmir for their own vested interests. These advocates of status quo and opponents of abrogation of 370 have always misled the Kashmiri youth by keeping them away from their schools and colleges through forced closures while their own children enjoyed the best of facilities outside the Valley and abroad. The often claimed reason of excesses by security forces as the main motivator of joining militant ranks no more exists as claimed by the DGP when he complimented the forces and the people for total ‘clean operations’ in 2019 and so far in 2020. Who is then responsible for pushing the local youth into militancy in whatever number it is? It is the eco-system of terror sympathisers, Maulvis, Madarsas and hate preachers still operating in the valley which has been lately joined by the status quo lobby asserted Brig Gupta.
Their narrative also includes unemployment and lack of development as causes for the youth joining militancy. This is also fallacious propaganda. Unemployment is across the UT and not Valley specific. As far as development is concerned the UT administration has put in public domain all the 10573 infrastructure projects completed during FY 19-20 for public scrutiny and feedback. These include projects completed under Back to Village programmes, languishing projects and those undertaken by NABARD. A record of 19700 km of rural roads have been built in 19-20 and 5300 km are planned to be built during current FY under PMGSY.
Despite the things having changed for the better, the status quo lobby backed by certain media houses continue to pedal a negative narrative regretted Brig Gupta and cautioned people to not to fall prey to their narrative.