add_main_imageOn Thursday, Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) chief minister Omar Abdullah raised an intriguing question. Were the people of J&K different? His query, raised during his Independence Day speech, was in the context of the debate in Parliament on the disturbances in Kishtwar. Abdullah said such mentions and attention made the people of the state feel “different” from the rest of the country.
It is a question worth pondering over. But here’s another question: what are the kind of societies in which “conspiracy theories” flourish? It is interesting to speculate what happens when the gap—in income growth, opportunities and jobs—between different states rises. A feeling of being “left behind” is natural. In India, conspiracy follows as a corollary. In this, J&K is not different from other states such as Bihar and Orissa, where governments routinely crib about stepmotherly treatment by the Centre. Only the wording is different. NextMAds
