current situation of Kashmir is also reflection of accumulated anger of last two decades. “They (people) have suffered so much during the last two decades and their anger is now coming out in open piggybacking from one issue to other,” Chaudhary said. “Earlier, administration knew how to deal with militants but when you deal with unarmed people, the entire situation changes.”
Abdullah’s failure of resolving any of the three cases in entirety has added to the mess.
However, Chaudhary says, that time is against Chief Minister Omar Abdullah and he is not being given a chance to prove himself.
“Incidents are happening one after another and Omar is finding himself at a wrong place at a wrong time,” opines Chaudhary. “Barring Shopian, he took timely action in both Baramulla and Larkipora incident, but his actions are dwarfing before people’s expectations.”
The inability of New Delhi to move forward on Kashmir had added to the chaos. The peace process, which is currently blown into smithereens, has added a weight of desperation.
Prof Wani says, “There is a crisis of expectations from peace process.” The hope that something will emerge from peace process after gun was extinguished in Kashmir and democracy married with it, was dashed and further hammered with every passing day.”
This political vacuum has also contributed to the unrest. “Now the people are following sentiment rather than leaders,” says Chaudhary. “People are taking up the issue on locality basis and taking it to culmination.”
People feel that it is safe to bet on sentiment rather than leaders. While the leaders can falter, the sentiment survives.
