Hoping for business as usual: A period of relative peace has given new hopes to Kashmir’s business landscape
Inox Cinema Complex in Srinagar. Hibban, says Shah, is hooked to the e-gaming zone at the complex. As night falls, they make their hour-long journey back to Tral.
This very ordinary weekend activity was the stuff of dreams in Kashmir as recent as five years ago. Shah says it is safe now to drive at night, all the way back to Tral. “The Valley has been peaceful in the last few years. Some of the sectors such as tourism and construction have witnessed a boom never seen before,” Shah tells ET.
Five years ago, in February 2019, a suicide attack killed 40 Indian soldiers in Pulwama, bringing New Delhi and Islamabad perilously close to a full-blown war. The incident, which happened on the eve of the 2019 general elections, drummed up nationalistic fervour in the rest of India and was one of the factors that helped BJP sweep the polls. And one of the first steps taken by the new government under Narendra Modi was to scrap Article 370 of the Constitution, a provision that granted special status to Jammu & Kashmir. The Centre divided the state into two Union territories: Jammu & Kashmir, and Ladakh. It was an unpopular decision in the Valley but there were no big protests as all local political leaders and separatist-leaning youth were under preventive detention.
Five years down the line, voters of J&K are gearing up for their first major elections after the scrapping of Article 370. They will elect five Lok Sabha MPs, and it is widely hoped that this would be followed by elections to the state assembly and restoration
