Saturday 20 / April / 2024
Srinagar : The G20 summit in Kashmir is yet another path-breaking move of Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led government to take Jammu and Kashmir to new heights.
Srinagar hosting the maiden international summit has rekindled the hopes for a better and secure future for the Himalayan region. For 30-long years, the people of Kashmir lived under the shadow of guns and bombs.
Agents of the neighboring country are present in Kashmir, sponsored street protests, stone-pelting and shutdowns to disrupt the normal lives of the people.
However, during the past more than three years the Union Territory has traversed a long way from instability to stability, disturbances to humming economic activity and alien stone-throwing culture to renaissance of the rich heritage and culture.
The determination of the people has bid farewell to a nightmarish phase of disruption, violence and bloodshed.
Now, the scenario has changed with tourists tronging Kashmir to have their best of times. Nearly 1.88 crore tourists visiting JK in 2022 have broken all previous records.
Relentless efforts put in by Prime Minister Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah have pulled JK out of the quagmire of uncertainty and have put it on the path of peace, prosperity and development.
The enthusiasm shown by the people of Jammu and Kashmir about the G20 event in Srinagar signifies the change that the Union Territory has witnessed after 2019.
People are reaping the dividends of peace in terms of a big boom in economic activity and near normalcy leading to a smooth way of life.
Space for the anti-peace elements has shrunk. Nefarious designs of the obstructionists to push JK into an era of despair and hopelessness again have been thwarted.
Common man in JK has welcomed the Centre's move to hold the third meeting of the G20 Tourism Working Group in Srinagar. They have understood the need to sustain the prevailing era of peace and harmony in order to make his life easy and happy.
Huge investments that JK has received after 2019 have opened up new employment avenues and people have started prospering.
The G20 event in Srinagar has put JK on a larger canvas globally. This is set to give a fillip to global investments for industrialization and infrastructural development. The beginning has already been made due to concerted efforts put in by the Center and the UT administration.
Public participation in governance and inclusive development has instilled a sense of confidence among the JK people, who are looking for the momentum to continue for the improvement of their region.
For them, "Kashmir was an issue" that needed to be resolved through tripartite or trilateral talks between India, Pakistan and the representatives of the JK people.
It's an open secret that JK for seven long decades remained deprived of the benefits of the centrally sponsored schemes due to the wrong policies followed by the former political regimes in the region.
Till Narendra Modi took over as the Prime Minister of India in 2014, the political regimes in JK allowed the separatists and the terrorists sponsored by Pakistan to call the shots and run a parallel regime.
Politicians remained busy pursuing separatists to initiate dialogue with the Center and stop sponsoring violence. They couldn't muster the courage to call spade an integral spade and speak the truth that JK is an part of India and it's no "dispute."
PM Modi-led dispensation during the past nine years has made it clear to the world and its adversaries that Jammu and Kashmir is an integral part of India and its citizens are no different from the people of other parts of the country.
By holding the all-important G20 Tourism Working Group meeting in Srinagar the Center has driven home a point that the summer capital of JK is like any other city in the country.
The G20 countries by sending their representatives to Kashmir have endorsed India's stand. No country barring China and Turkey, close allies of Pakistan, has paid any attention towards the objections raised by India's neighbor to hold the G20 summit in Kashmir.
Srinagar has welcomed the international delegates with open arms. It's for the first time after 1990 that no strike has been called to oppose the visit of the international delegates to Srinagar.
As of date no separatist is relevant in Kashmir, neither are the people paying any attention to them.
JK witnessing unprecedented development post-August 5, 2019 has opened the eyes of the common man. They have understood the difference between good and evil.
More than anyone else the common people of JK are aware of the fact that the G20 being held in their land is an honor and it has provided them with an opportunity to showcase their culture, hospitality and tourism to the world.
