The Parliament of India has scrapped Article 370 and provisions under 35A of the Constitution which granted special status to the State of Jammu and Kashmir, along with the order stating, “It (announcement) shall come into force at once". While introducing the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganization Bill in the Parliament, Union Home Minister Amit Shah said the government has decided to bifurcate the state into two Union Territories – Jammu and Kashmir, which will have a legislature, and Ladakh, which will be without a legislature.
As India tries to stem the flow of citizens joining the self-proclaimed Islamic State, the state of Kerala, on the southern coast, has emerged as an area of special concern. According to government statistics, more citizens have been arrested for Islamic State ties in Kerala than in any other state.
Indian democracy witnessed multiple challenges. Disruption of elections by the rebel groups in the three conflict theatres – Jammu & Kashmir, central India and the north-eastern states of India – is one of them. Unlike the 2004 and 2009 Parliamentary elections, some Islamist extremist groups have planned to disrupt the 2014 elections. Some have even been preparing for the last six months or more to disrupt the elections.
War is not a civilized or dignified way to get hold of rights. Because in wars, national development is arrested, education, economy and technology are left backwards, leaders become cruel and unjust, the military is too expensive, and humans become victims.
The identification of at least four slain Kerala-based militants in Jammu and Kashmir early this month raises some vital questions about Islam and terrorism in India: What inspired Muslim youths of Kerala to fight for a cause alien to them and that in a distant land? How far these Terror groups have penetrated India's hinterlands, getting easy recruits for their subversive activities?