Promises To Keep

From 'Naya' to 'Badalta' Kashmir, from silence to guarantees galore

- Abhik Bhattacharya & Rakhi Bose

The day was September 29, 1944. The annual session of the National Conference (NC) at Srinagar was bustling with fresh energy. The fight against the ruling Dogra dynasty had reached its peak. Sheikh Abdullah, popularly known as Sher-e-Kashmir, declared a new beginning—the promise of a ‘Naya Kashmir’. Carefully choosing his words, Abdullah said, “The NC fights for the poor, against those who exploit them; for the toiling people of our beautiful homeland against the heartless ranks of the socially privileged... Cut to 2024. Much water has flowed along the Jhelum’s banks over the past eight decades. But the promises made by Abdullah, now represented by the Sher-e-Kashmir’s son Farooq and grandson Omar, remain constant, albeit in a different spatiotemporal context. This time, the NC’s election manifesto for the ongoing assembly polls pledges yet another ‘Naya Kashmir’. One, that would undo the ‘injustices’ meted out to the land and its people over the years.

The NC, however, is no longer the only articulator of a ‘Naya Kashmir’.

In 2023, after the Supreme Court upheld the abrogation of Article 370, Prime Minister Narendra Modi expressed his hope for a ‘‘brighter future’’ that is about to shape ‘Naya Jammu and Kashmir’. As the union territory goes to polls after ten years, contesting NC and BJP narratives over the ingredients of a ‘Naya Kashmir’, coupled with promises of ‘‘development’” made by the major political parties in the fray, captures the shift in the politics of the erstwhile state.