KASHMIR: A PREFERABLE FUTURE

Shah Faesal wears many hats – common man, bureaucrat and dissident. Here, he writes exclusively for Chanakya Forum.

“Two years down the line it is by and large clear now that the abrogation of Article 370 made a powerful statement about how India looks at itself and its perception of the contemporary world-order. The situation in Kashmir must be examined in the backdrop of what has been achieved so far because that sets tone for the task ahead.

Government’s action on Article 370 was firstly a geopolitical signal, a reiteration of the unconditional nature and irreversibility of J&K’s Accession to the Union of India in 1947. India made it unequivocally known that it would not hesitate from taking seemingly extraordinary steps in the region to protect and promote its national interests, even if that meant risking an asymmetric two front war in the Himalayas.

Summer of 2019 was the time when India’s defensive-offence national security doctrine whose biggest proponent has been India’s NSA Ajit Doval, came of age. Gautam Chikermane calls it inauguration of India’s rise as a ‘rajasic’ nation.”