New era of normalcy begun due to Aug 2019 changes, says J&K L-G

Pointing out that the Union government took “not one or two, but 50 historic decisions to transform the face of the region” after the Constitutional change in August 2019, Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha said that a new era of normalcy and development has begun due to the changes effected last year.




Jammu and Kashmir Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha on Friday expressed the administration’s desire to transform the narrative in the Union Territory once again by making development, peace, progress and social harmony the “most integral part” of it.

Pointing out that the Union government took “not one or two, but 50 historic decisions to transform the face of the region” after the Constitutional change in August 2019, Sinha in his Independence Day speech said that a new era of normalcy and development has begun due to the changes effected last year.

The Centre had, on August 5, 2019, revoked the special status to the erstwhile state of J&K and bifurcated it into two UTs.

To ensure that the journey takes the people of J&K to their destination quickly, Sinha listed his administration’s five targets: putting in place a just and transparent system of governance dedicated to empowering the marginalised and weaker sections of the society; establish a thriving grassroots-level democracy; ensure that every person is benefitted from government schemes; accelerate development of J&K, including economic development; and creation of employment opportunities and livelihood.

In an appeal to students and the youth to ensure that their activism is directed at development of the nation, Sinha said that “unfortunately, some wrong decisions were taken after Independence’’, which “inevitably led to resentment in the hearts of the people of J&K and distanced them from the rest’’ of the country.

“This distancing led to the widening of fissures and cracks (and) generation after generation was sacrificed at the altar of hatred,’’ he said. These “distances”, he said, increased, as instead of countless doors that should have opened for the people in Independent India, “numerous doors closed upon them”.

Sinha, who took charge on August 7, said, “Former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee laid great emphasis on Insaniyat, Jamhooriyat and Kashmiriyat, but humanity conceded defeat to terrorism for decades in Kashmir, democracy suffered at the hands of vested interests, and Kashmiriyat was massacred to appease the hatred that ensued.”

It is a matter of great sorrow that the legacy of cultural syncretism has been eclipsed by the vicious story of sectarianism, he said. But, he said, “we want to transform the narrative” and “make development, peace, progress and social harmony the most integral part of the narrative of J&K”.

Recalling that people of J&K had dissociated themselves from communal riots of Partition, he remembered Mahavir Chakra awardee Brigadier Rajinder Singh, who repulsed the enemy attack in Uri till his last breath in 1947, and the valour of Brigadier Usman, who died while confronting the enemy in Nowshera.

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