Kashmir, through its silence has said it so profoundly. The expression of dissenting views may not seem much of a threat to powerful regime, yet sometimes it triggers amazingly hostile response to the ideas that are meant to be implemented. The choice has to be India and Indian-ness alone on the basis of compassion. The word power so gained has no vibration, and it cannot be unless the emotional bonds are strengthened. The words are there, meanings are confined to dictionaries. The passion that had fuelled such an outcome has started fading as the script is found to be lost in changing gears. This should have been a moment to move on.

The Centre viewed it as an unavoidable necessity for its complete integration with the rest of the country. This now serves as a reminder of the day when the state lost its statehood and special status. Within minutes after the clock struck 12 noon on August 5, 2019, the Centre, in all its wisdom, decided to split the state into two Union Territories as an instant sequel to the abolition of Article 370 and Article 35A that conferred special status and privileges to the permanent residents of Jammu and Kashmir вЂ“ the legacy of the Dogra rule.ДЄugust 5 can graduate to a historic date if India embraces J&K as an all-time its own- its people need to be counted as first. It was a conscious decision of KashmirвЂ™s towering leadership that Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah symbolised who chose India over Pakistan. This was a demonstrative and profound negation of the two-nation theory with slogans, вЂњHamlawar, hoshiyar, hum Kashmiri Hai Tayar, (beware Pakistani invaders, we, Kashmiris, are ready to fight you back). It offered all support to the Indian Army to push back the tribesmenвЂ™ invasion. Kashmir saved, whatever it could, by virtue of accession to India. The newly created theocratic nation-state of Pakistan had invaded J&K, for it believed that the two-nation theory that resulted in its own creation was short of its goal unless the Muslim majority in J&K sits on its map. It was an outcome of malign influences of the political spectrum that followed 1947 when the original state was partitioned. August 5, 2019, cannot, and should not be a never-ending narrative to define Jammu and Kashmir.

Sare jahan se acha hindustan hamara