Trip and fall

Violent protests and shutdowns mar European MPs’ two-day trip to Srinagar

PTI10_29_2019_000220B External intervention: The European delegation at Dal Lake for a shikara ride. The delegates said their visit was about finding facts | PTI

NEARLY THREE MONTHS after the Union government decided to revoke Article 370 and bifurcate the state of Jammu and Kashmir, Girish Chandra Murmu was appointed the first lieutenant governor of the Union territory of Jammu and Kashmir. A 1985-batch IAS officer, Murmu was Narendra Modi’s principal secretary when he was chief minister of Gujarat and is known to be a proficient administrator.

Members of the European delegation said they did not get enough time to meet a large number of Kashmiris, but reiterated that Article 370 was India’s internal issue.

Unlike the Union territory of Ladakh, Jammu and Kashmir will have an elected assembly with a chief minister and eight ministers. But the lieutenant governor, along with the Union government, will wield real power with their control over the IAS and IPS cadres and the anti-corruption bureau. That, according to a BJP leader from Kashmir, will satisfy the party’s desire for a Hindu chief minister.

But not everything is going according to the BJP’s plan. The party’s performance in the block development council polls held on October 24 was far from impressive, although all other major parties boycotted the elections in protest against the abrogation of Article 370. But the party is in no mood to back down. BJP national general secretary Ram Madhav said there were only two paths left for Jammu and Kashmir—development and peace. “For that, if we have to keep 200 or 300 people detained, we will. There are many jails for such people in India,’’ said Madhav, in an oblique reference to senior leaders like Farooq and Omar Abdullah of the National Conference and Mehbooba Mufti of the Peoples Democratic Party, who have been under house arrest since the crackdown started in August.

A BJP leader in Srinagar told THE WEEK that a detained National Conference leader wanted to go to London, while Mehbooba was unflinching even under detention. Two of her senior colleagues, Muzaffar Baig and Altaf Bukhari, along with Congress leader Usman Majeed, however, met national security adviser Ajit Doval and members of European Parliament (MEPs) in Delhi on October 28, a day before the European delegation arrived in Srinagar to assess the situation in the valley.

Initially, 32 MEPs were scheduled to visit Kashmir, but only 23 of them arrived in Srinagar on October 29. Most of them belonged to far right parties from France, Poland, Italy and Germany. Their visit was arranged by an NGO called WESTT (Women’s Economic and Social Think Tank), run by Brussels-based British Indian Madi Sharma. She said expenses for the trip were covered by the Delhi-based International Institute for Non-Aligned Studies.

After checking in at a five-star hotel in Srinagar, the delegation was escorted by the security forces to the Army’s 15 Corps for a briefing on the security situation and lunch. They were then taken to another five-star hotel on the banks of Dal Lake for an interaction with the sarpanches and chairmen of the block development councils who are being promoted as the new the faces of Kashmir politics. Some of them who were brought to Srinagar from other districts had little idea about the meeting. “I will meet them and will let you know,’’ said one of the sarpanches outside the hotel.

The MEPs also interacted with members of some of the political parties. BJP spokesperson Altaf Thakur said he told the delegation that Article 370 was breeding separatism and instability. “We also told them that the Kashmiris wanted peace and progress and the situation was normal, but some forces were trying to destabilise Kashmir.” A newspaper editor, who was invited to meet the European delegation, said representatives of NGOs, youth groups and people from far-off areas also interacted with the MEPs. “But nobody in Kashmir knows who they are and what they do,’’ he said.

In the afternoon, the MEPs enjoyed a shikara ride in Dal Lake under tight security, with hardly any tourists around. On October 30, they told a news conference that their visit was not about political interference, but about finding facts. They said they did not get enough time to meet a large number of Kashmiris, but reiterated that Article 370 was India’s internal issue. Hermann Tertsch, an MEP from Spain, told reporters that the delegation was conscious of the fact that they had been kept away from some people. The MEPs suggested talks between India and Pakistan for peace in the valley.

The MEPs’ visit to Kashmir coincided with the killing of five migrant workers from West Bengal. The workers were abducted from their rented accommodation in Kulgam in south Kashmir by suspected militants and shot dead.

Most Kashmiris reacted to the visit by resorting to strikes and protest demonstrations. In Srinagar, six people suffered pellet injuries in clashes with security forces. The valley witnessed a complete shutdown. The flea market, which was open even during the prolonged shutdown against the revocation of Article 370, remained closed during the delegation’s visit.

Reacting to the visit, Mehbooba tweeted, “Wondering what outcome GOI expected by sending a group of mostly right leaning Islamophobic EUMPs to Kashmir? Were you expecting nine million oppressed Kashmiris to lay out red carpet for them?” She asked opposition leaders like Rahul Gandhi and Sitaram Yechury to visit Kashmir at the earliest.

The National Conference termed the visit a public relations exercise. “It is ironic that EU lawmakers are visiting the valley when the state’s leaders including former chief ministers, are incarcerated for nearly three months and hundreds are in jails across the country,’’ said a statement issued by the party. “What the people of Kashmir think of the visit is very clear from an intensified shutdown in the valley.”