‘Green Shoots’ in J&K?
Six months after a shocking constitutional coup to effectively abrogate its special status under Article 370 and its downsizing to a Union territory, efforts are on to showcase Jammu and Kashmir’s return to normalcy.
On February 12-13, a delegation of 25 envoys of European Union member countries, including the EU ambassador to India, Ugo Astuto, were taken on a guided tour of the state, orchestrated by the Union ministry for external affairs, during which they met a select group of politicians, civil society members and mediapersons.
Byelections were scheduled on March 5—and then deferred for three weeks over security concerns—to nearly 13,000 panchayats, in a first attempt at a seemingly democratic electoral exercise since August 5, 2019. In May, the administration
