Over the past 48 hours, a series of unprecedented events that have culminated into the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Bill pushed by Home Minister Amit Shah, the entire attention of the nation has been drawn to the northernmost state whose native population has not been involved in the discourse that is going to have direct repercussions on them.?
This has caused widespread resentment among some members of the intelligentsia, which includes some of the foremost rational thinkers, writers, artistes, poets and historians, as they have taken to Social Media to express their angst at the turn of events.
At the same time, there is an equal music from their counterparts, people from the same fraternity, who seem to have been overwhelmed by the decisive decision of Prime Minister Modi-led NDA government.?
Historian Ramachandra Guha, the author of monumental biographies on Mahatma Gandhi criticised the arbitrary manner in which Article 370 was scrapped, warning the Indian population that opting to remain silent at this juncture could backfire.?
¡°I'd like every Indian to reflect on the misuse of state power. What happened in Kashmir today, could happen in your state tomorrow,¡± said Guha, an internationally renowned historian.?
Actor-activist Mona Ambegaonkar was also among those who expressed her disgust at the undemocratic manner in which the bill was hastily introduced and passed in the Parliament.?
She compared the current events to the Emergency that was introduced by former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi and has been repeatedly used by Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led BJP government at the centre to criticise the Congress party.?
Pratik Sinha, who has been leading a movement on the social media to debunk fake news and expose its propagators, too took to Twitter to cite the new definition of democracy as he sees it unfold before his eyes.?
Noted publisher and editor at Bloomsbury Faiza S. Khan tweeted a moving poem but then deleted it, and posted the following tweet in a state of despair.?
Writer-Historian William Dalrymple, one of the leading literary figures in the contemporary world, posted a series of tweets on Tuesday morning to register his dissent, and urging the Central government to let the Kashmiris be heard.?
Writer Manu S. Pillai, most recently of 'The Courtesan, the Mahatma & the Italian Brahmin' too took a dig at the central government.?
Data and Policy researcher Roshan Kishore noted that the present imbroglio is a reflection of how the BJP has re-crafted its Hindutva strategy post 2014.?
Public intellectual Pratap Bhanu Mehta, who wrote a hard-hitting column in The Indian Express on Tuesday contended that the BJP thinks it is going to Indianise Kashmir but will instead end up Kashmirising India.?
Culture entrepreneur and founder of the Jaipur Literature Festival Sanjoy K. Roy had this to say.?
While these are just a handful of prominent voices voices that took to Twitter to express their dissent at the manner in which the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Bill was pushed in the Parliament, their angst reached a new height as statements of Former J&K Chief Minister Farooq Abdullah, easily the tallest contemporary figure from the state, dominated the television screens in the later half of the day.?
Mr Abdullah accused the Home Minister of lying on the floor of the house in the parliament and said that he had been detained last night. He broke down while speaking to a television journalist but reaffirmed his faith in the democratic process and urged Indians to stand by Kashmiris in their hour of need.?
Meanwhile former RAW chief A.S. Dulat was quoted by Pune Mirror as saying that there will be repercussions of the current moves, and we might see an upswing in violence ¡ª not just in Kashmir but just about anywhere.
However, it should also be noted that the intelligentsia too has been divided on such issues in the recent times as voices like Anupam Kher and Vivek Agnihotri step in to condemn the intellectuals for their overly liberal outlook on issues of national interest.?