The continuing predicament

While the Union government continues to stand by its position that restrictions in Kashmir are to the extremes as they are reported to be, the Apex Court steps in to take stock of the situation form the Centre's part and come up with a clearer picture of the grim state of affairs persisting in Kashmir. The Centre told the Supreme Court that it had been relaxing the curbs imposed in Jammu and Kashmir after abrogation of Article 370 and claimed that the pleas alleging "complete clampdown" was incorrect and irrelevant. Although claimed that relaxations have been allowed in the region since August 13 and that there was not a complete clampdown as projected by petitioners, the pleas including one filed by senior Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad alleged that restrictions are "incorrect, irrelevant, and have out-lived their utility". In the disputed region of Jammu and Kashmir which has seen and borne a great amount of changes over the decades following Independence, although reluctantly in many respects, the people of the disputed region exercised their democratic right and this affirmed time and again that their aspirations lie with India. Given this situation, the veneer of Article 370 and the special status of the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir was anyhow reduced to a symbolic entity and not one of any real effect. Even then, making a radical change of the kind that was announced on August 5 and imposing restriction and a communication blackout that has still not phased out entirely does not reflect well on the democratic values of the Indian government.