Echoes from the streets

Dear Chief Minister,

I did not vote for you. That may not matter to you, but it matters to me, because in a time when politics has become transactional, where loyalty is rewarded and dissent is dismissed, it is important to begin with honesty. I did not vote for you, and yet, here I am writing this letter not out of loyalty, but out of hope that perhaps, this time, leadership might mean listening.

You now sit in a chair that carries more than power. It carries the weight of too many broken promises, too many speeches that led nowhere, and too many young lives that began with dreams but ended in disillusionment.

Our youth are tired. Tired of waiting. Tired of being told they are the future while their present is suffocated by a constant sense of being watched but not seen. They want peace, but not silence. They want development, but not at cost of demolition of identity.

This is your moment but it is ours too. You have inherited a region that has seen too much and heard too little. We do not ask for perfection. We ask for the truth. We ask for leadership that looks beyond headlines and walks the streets it represents.

We know the complexities you face. We understand the layers of control, the unsaid forces, the power beyond the visible. Faith in politics has collapsed not because people have lost interest but because they’ve been lied to too many times.

You have a chance to change this script. But only if you’re willing to hear the uncomfortable truths.

This is not a letter asking for favours. It is a reminder that Kashmir cannot be governed by optics, pacified with slogans, or bought with packages. It demands integrity, engagement, and empathy not just from podiums but on the ground, where real lives unfold.

Your election was not just a political shift, it was a whisper rising from the ruins, maybe we can begin again. But beginning again does not mean forgetting. And the people of Jammu and Kashmir especially its young have not forgotten.

We have not forgotten who we were before August 2019. We have not forgotten what was taken without asking. And we have not forgotten what you said during your campaign, that you would fight for the return of what was rightfully ours: Article 370, our special status, our dignity.

We did not stand in line to vote just for roads, water, or transformers. Majority voted for the first time in years because you told us to believe that this election might be the start of a political resistance grounded not in rage, but in constitutional courage. We voted because you told us that statehood alone was not enough, that the fight would not end with a chair in the secretariat, but with justice in Parliament and history. Do not now retreat into silence. Do not now ask us to be patient while Delhi decides the pace.

Kashmir has waited long enough. We know that power in Kashmir rarely flows from the ballot box alone. But leadership is not measured by what you are allowed to say it is measured by what you are brave enough to say anyway. You have a duty not just to govern, but to remember.

We are not asking you to fight recklessly. We are asking you to speak truthfully. Don’t reduce our pain to soundbites. Don’t shrink our history into a press release. If you fail, it won’t just be your failure it will be another wound on a generation already scarred.

We are not unreasonable people. We do not expect overnight miracles. But we do expect effort. And we expect courage. Because without courage, there can be no healing and without healing, there can be no future.

So lead us not just into governance, but into restoration. Stand not only for statehood, but for the return of our rights, our recognition, our rightful place in the Union of India.

Tailpiece

The call for a “signature campaign” on the restoration of J&K’s statehood may sound democratic, but in reality, it is a hollow gesture, politically tone-deaf and constitutionally irrelevant.

Statehood is not a matter of public petitions. It is a constitutional issue to be resolved by Parliament and the Supreme Court not through populist theatrics. The Jammu and Kashmir Legislative Assembly, in its rightful capacity, has already passed a resolution demanding return of special status with a two-thirds majority, moved by the Deputy Chief Minister on behalf of the National Conference government.

No number of signatures can override the legitimacy of a resolution passed by an elected House. At best, this campaign is symbolic. At worst, it reduces a serious political demand to performative politics.

If the intent is genuine, a better course would have been to unite all regional parties and lead a delegation to the Prime Minister, speaking in one voice, from a position of strength, not street-level spectacle.