Jammu and Kashmir needs an independent think tank to guide society on drawing up guidelines for governments at the Centre and Srinagar to make decisions that can help them in winning hearts and minds in the land which sits at a strategic crossroads in one of the most crucial geopolitical regions.This kind of think tank, involving policy-making experts, researchers, scholars, and brains behind the social media outreach, is a strategic necessity.

At the moment, there is a peculiar situation in Jammu and Kashmir, where the two main regions are competing toset their own narratives. In truer sense, the Kashmir Valley and parts of the hilly regions of the Jammu province have aligned themselves with a particular narrative. They hold reservations on several issues, which the other side - Jammu plains and a few hilly pockets - describes as the ultimate definition of the current situation.The decisions of August 5, 2019 - the abrogation of Articles 370 and 35A, and the bifurcation of the State into two Union Territories - have immensely impacted the region. This has given rise to a new narrative: part of it stems from people discovering the pleasures of a normal life, while the rest stems from the constant refrain that Kashmir has changed.

This has not been able to reverse the wholeperception. No one has summoned the courage to describe the happenings for over three decades from the 1990s onwardsin the terms they should have been described. Softer terms like turmoil and turbulence are used to describe the darkest chapter in the........

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