Image Source: TRIBUNE

While protests continue to be organized in higher educational institutions and elsewhere across the country against the contentious Citizenship Amendment Act, the Kashmir valley has maintained silence since the withdrawal of J&K’s special status and the state’s division into two Union Territories.

The political leadership in the J&K UT, including three former Chief Ministers and most of the other former ministers and legislators of the erstwhile state, are under detention, rendering the political landscape barren. The educational institutions in the Valley have been mostly non-functional without the presence of students in view of the spontaneous lockdown against the Central government’s decisions. These educational institutions, though having passed through the exercise of conducting annual examinations, have been closed for winter vacation since mid-December.

The Valley, according to political observers, has been simmering with the “protest of silence” that was enforced following the revocation of Article 370. The observers feel protests against issues like the Citizenship Amendment Act are minor issues as the “prevailing silence” for the past more than four months was a major protest. “There is no (political) voice to respond to such issues,” said an observer on the condition of anonymity.