People watching with curiosity & expectations
Prime Minister Narendra Modi is visiting Srinagar on Thursday (March 07) where besides inaugurating and laying foundation stone of various developmental projects, he is to address a huge gathering of public and beneficiaries of various schemes launched by the Union Government. While the UT administration has made fool-proof security arrangement for the occasion, Bhartiya Janta Party (BJP) has activated its rank and file to attract more crowds to the public meeting that would be held in the heart of the Srinagar city at Bakshi Stadium.
General public of Kashmir is watching with expectations and curiosity. It is for the first time that the PM will be addressing a public meeting here after August 05, 2019 when the Union Government abrogated Article 370 and 35 A and divided erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir into two Union Territories – Ladakh and Jammu & Kashmir. While the political and social leaders besides the civil society of Ladakh and Kargil have opened up communication lines with the Centre and are holding deliberations with home ministry vis-à-vis the region’s issues and concerns, nothing of the sort has happened as for as Jammu and Kashmir UT is concerned. People here, therefore, are keen as to what message the PM is going to dish out from the city which prior to August 2019 was the most disturbed city of India and has of late emerged as the most happening tourist attraction.
While the official here have already disclosed that what developmental projects the PM is going to throw open, with focus on agriculture and allied sectors (which are the backbone of J&K’s economy), people are expecting the PM to address the two most burning issues that Kashmir is face to face with – unemployment and electric power supply. On unemployment front, Modi government is committed to provide jobs to the jobless here and some progress has been made on this front but still a lot needs to be done. Similarly, the UT administration has been working tirelessly to improve power sector here but there are still miles to go and the UT government can’t do much without Union government’s handholding.
As for as political expectations of the public are concerned, people are looking towards the PM, whom they see as a strong advocate of empowerment of masses, to come up with something that would ensure that the ordinary people too are made part of the decision-making process and that is possible only when they are given a chance to elect their representatives, besides Lok Sabha, to Panchayats, Urban Bodies, Block Development Councils and UT’s Assembly. Afsar Shahi (bureaucratic rule) can and should never be preferred over rule by the public representatives. We live in a democracy and it is the Dharma of democracy to ensure that people are allowed to rule themselves and for that to happen, they are given a chance to elect their own representatives.
Secondly, the people are keen to know what PM’s take would be on restoration of statehood. While people from Kashmir and Jammu region differ on various issues, on the issue of statehood, it seems, they are on the same plate. Government of India is committed to restore the statehood but the people here, who would be listening to the PM in their own backyard tomorrow, will be keen what he says about this.
