'India’s score has shown the biggest decline among the world’s 25 largest democracies in the new report from Freedom House, the oldest American organisation devoted to the support and defence of democracy around the world. The steep fall has been blamed on three actions of the Narendra Modi government: the unilateral annulment of the semi-autonomous status of Jammu and Kashmir, the implementation of the National Register of Citizens in Assam and the passage of the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA)...'
'Diplomats of 25 countries including Germany, Canada, France and Afghanistan reached Jammu and Kashmir to witness the ground situation in the region nearly six months after the centre scrapped the erstwhile state's special status and split it into two Union Territories. This is the second batch of foreign diplomats to visit Kashmir in one month. The delegation includes diplomats from Canada, Austria, Uzbekistan, Uganda, Slovak Republic, Netherlands, Namibia, Kyrgyz Republic, Bulgaria, Germany, Tajikistan, France, Mexico, Denmark, Italy, Afghanistan, New Zealand, Poland, and Rwanda...'
'OMAR Abdullah’s ability to “convince his electorate to vote in huge numbers” and Mehbooba Mufti being “referred (to) as ‘Daddy’s girl’ and ‘Kota Rani’” for “her dangerous and insidious machinations and usurping profile and nature” are among the reasons cited by the Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) administration for invoking the stringent Public Safety Act (PSA) against the two former chief ministers...'
'“Brain freeze”, “mind-numbing”, “deadwood”, “a feeling of forcibly being confined in a cold storage” – during a recent visit to the Kashmir Valley, journalists search for words to describe to me the experience of having been stripped of their professional identity and dignity by government diktat.
'Mining businesses from different parts of India are expanding into Jammu & Kashmir for the first time with last year’s scrapping of its special status opening the door for non-local players. Companies from Punjab, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan have participated in public auctions and won leases to mine the union territory’s reserves of coal, marble and limestone, among other things. The increased competition is yielding up to 60 per cent higher returns for J&K, say officials in the administration.
'Former Jammu and Kashmir chief ministers Omar Abdullah and Mehbooba Mufti, along with three senior leaders, who have all been in preventive detention since August last year, were on Thursday booked under the stringent Public Safety Act (PSA), officials in Srinagar reportedly told PTI. Their six-month preventive custody was ending on Thursday...'
'Notwithstanding the criticism of the arbitrary use of the Public Safety Act (PSA) in Kashmir through 2019 – the year J&K was stripped of its special status – the law has been consistently invoked by authorities to keep people “out of circulation” in the restive region. A report by J&K Coalition of Civil Society (J&KCCS) and Association of Parents of Disappeared Persons’ (APDP) said 662 persons, including a former chief minister and sitting MP, were booked under the PSA in 2019.
'There have been 144,500 job losses in the tourism and handicrafts sector since August 5, 2019... In 2018, Kashmir had received 316,434 tourists between August and December. In 2019, this number fell to 43,059 for the same period, a decline of 86%, showed tourism department data accessed by IndiaSpend. In July 2019, Kashmir received 152,525 tourists but August 2019 saw only 10,130 arrivals and most of them in the first few days of the month. This number further fell to 4,562 in September 2019, and grew to 12,086 in November 2019...'
'SAYING THAT internet was just used to watch “dirty films (gandi filmein)” in Jammu and Kashmir, NITI Aayog member V K Saraswat said on Saturday that suspension of services in the region, following the government’s decision to revoke J&K’s special status under Article 370 on August 5 last year, did not have a “significant” effect on the economy...'
'On November 19, 2019, Union minister for tourism Prahlad Singh Patel told parliament that, effectively, there wasn’t any significant impact on tourism in Jammu & Kashmir (J&K) on account of his government’s scrapping of Article 370 in August, and the prolonged lockdown, restrictions and detentions in the region since then...
