JK News Today’s special report: Second awakening for J&K – moving from bystanders to warriors against drug abuse

LG Manoj Sinha’s campaign has assumes the shape of mass movement

Today , Jammu and Kashmir is stabilizing itself by building a mass resistance to drug abuse that had threatened to eat away all its vitals. This movement started by Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha on April 11 from M. A, Stadium – named after a national hero and a great educationist- has now been completed all across the 20 districts of the Union Territory .

There is an awakening among the people about how dangerous their courtship with drugs is, and how maintaining silence over this menace has wrecked families and neighbourhoods .

Society is in decline . It was not easy to raise a voice against drug abuse in a place like Jammu and Kashmir. The vested interests are so deep- rooted within and internationally – particularly across the border- that touching them was fraught with life-threatening consequences .

The drugs smugling and its spread among youth has penetrated deep into the system . There is big involvement and patronage of the influential people in the government and police , because it delivers easy money without much effort.

LG Manoj Sinha launched a 100-day “ Nasha Mukt” or drug free J&K campaign on April 11 from Jammu as he thought that this was the right time to arrest the menace and its impact on the national security, societal health and environment . Everything was in danger as the drugs had penetrated so deep that it had also become very difficult to uncover the layers under which it was wrapped . The interests gaining from the drugs, and narco terrorism had built several walls in literal sense to avoid the detection , leave alone the punishment . Their investment in real estate incentivized others to join the race in buying and selling drugs . A vast and vicious cycle rolled on , destroying families, youth , putting them on path of crime .

Manoj Sinha started this campaign with a wakeup call to one and all to speak and stand up against this menace . He wanted society to break silence , because keeping quiet was patronising the illicit trade and societal degradation .

Why he chose to travel to all 20 districts in the UT to join the “ Padayatras” or march on foot to impress upon religious, society, business and other leaders to rise against this abuse ? He had conveyed this message at the start of the campaign ? These questions have simple but profound answers : it needs prodding and a lot of push to wake up society that has been put to sleep by the illegal occupants of the system and promoters of narco terrorism . J&K’s future was being ruined , and no one should be a bystander. It had to be pro-active approach . During his visits and Pandyatras , he awakened the inner conscience of the people , making them realize who they were , and how they need to fight an abuse that would permanently threaten their identity and dignity .

Kashmir always needs a constant wake up call to reform itself . It is because it has lost its moorings and is living through a world which is not o its making. For over three decades , Kashmir has been troubled by terrorism from across the border, and its sufferings cannot be measured in terms of graveyards and the silence surrounding around them . This silence of graveyards speaks volumes about what Kashmir has undergone in the era of guns and grenades.

Today, Jammu and Kashmir , has been made to relook within itself , how its social system is breaking from within . Terrorism’s exteriors and interiors from within were more or less known : minds troubled by the failed system were exploited by Pakistan that had been waiting for such an opportunity for decades , especially since its humiliating defeat in 1971 war that left it with loss of its East Pakistan once and for all. There were youth armed with an ideology of destruction against the state and to spread fear and terror , the means and end of which were justified on the religious and political grounds.

A major shift took place in 2019 when the work started to dismantle guns all networks of terrorism with a clear call , “ peace will be established not bought.” It took a while for the message to sink in , but at the end of the day, things are clearer . The Command and Control system of terrorism started getting neutralized .

There was something more dangerous than the terrorism of violence through arms and ammunition. .These dangers were manifold. This arms and ammunition campaign and the ideology that drove it was funded by drugs abuse. Pakistan was playing a long-term game , to achieve what it could not achieve by its supply of terrorists, arms and ammunition in the past over 35 years, it started supplying drugs through borders . It crated vested interests in the spread of drug smuggling. This smuggling had far more dangerous dimensions – money-making was just a part of it, it funded the terrorism in the form that we are well aware of . Its money was used to sustain terrorism and the ideology of secessionism . Worse, the drugs were sold and youth addicted to it in the name of furthering the religious goals . It aimed at crippling the sense of clear thinking and action of the youth so that they could not think of resisting evils in society. Societal decline started … This tragically surfaces in an increasing rate of heinous crimes like rape and murder of a girl child .Nothing could be more lethal for J&K than this. It is time to heed the call against drug abuse and narco-terrorism. Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha has done a huge service to J&K as a true patriot .