Book Review: ‘Kashmir thinks it’s free’ released
Jammu: The much-awaited sequel to the controversial novel ‘Kashmir is free’ is now available worldwide in paperback and eBook formats on popular ecommerce sites like Amazon and Flipkart.
Written by Dr. Arun Kumar, an IAS officer of 1979 batch of the J&K cadre, the story starts in April 2022 when India has walked out of Kashmir and made Kashmir Free.
So, Kashmir finally has what its stone pelting mobs have apparently been demanding for such a long time. Full Freedom Now what?
What does Hasina Ittoo, its Chief Minister “promoted overnight” as Prime Minister, do? ask India for a Bhutan like status with the Indian Army defending it; or request Pakistan for a similar status as that of “Azad Kashmir”?
What does India do: treat Kashmir like Bhutan or Nepal with free trade and visa-free movement of people or treat it like Pakistan (an enemy country under the Enemy Property Act 1968) with massive restrictions on everything imaginable?
And how do the Kashmiris carry on with their daily lives? Where from do they get their food supplies, electricity, petroleum products, medicines, car parts, building material, and every such item of daily use? Which airline and mobile companies now service them? Which currency do they use now: Indian, Pakistani, or both? Who pays now for the bloated bureaucracy of Kashmir? Pakistan or India, are the issues that the book raises.
Does Shehla Kaloo, the firebrand Kashmiri feminist JNU student leader, (and one of the protagonists in the book), succeed in turning Kashmir in to a neutral but prosperous Switzerland? Or, does she yield to popular sentiments in favour of a Sharia-governed Islamist society?
The sequel examines all these issues in quite some detail and reaches a conclusion that is too shocking for words.
Spread over 47 chapters, this astoundingly realistic and edge-of-the-seat politico-bureaucratic thriller will grip you by the throat and shake you to the core when you finish its almost 70,000-words of pure adrenaline rush.
As an Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer of the 1979 batch of the Jammu and Kashmir cadre, who has served the nooks and crannies of J&K for over 37 years, lead author Arun Kumar believes he’s more than qualified to do justice to this thrilling plot.
As Chief Executive Officer for over six years from May 2002 to June 2008, readers may recall Dr Kumar’s outstanding contribution to professionalising and modernising the two world famous Shrine Boards viz. Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Shrine Board (SMVDSB) and Shri Amarnathji Shrine Board (SASB). He is the one who introduced helicopter services for both these shrines and electric buses for Vaishno Devi.
Co-author Prasenjeet Kumar brings his formidable experience of writing 30 books (of which 60 titles are now translated in to six international languages viz. French, German, Italian, Japanese, Spanish, and Portuguese) to tighten up the story and to bring out its human and social dimensions.
