'J&K hasn't adjusted to the radical surgery inflicted on it since Aug 2019'

'So Ladakh too is politically paralysed and in limbo, as Rafale jets roar above Leh and Israeli arms dealers prowl the town', said Sumantra Bose

Sumantra Bose, a comparative political scientist, is a renowned expert on the Kashmir conflict. His most recent book is Kashmir at the Crossroads: Inside a 21st-Century Conflict (Yale University Press and Picador India, 2021). In an interview to Aditi Phadnis, he describes the conditions in Kashmir and Ladakh, which he visited this month. Edited excerpts:

You’re just back from Kashmir. From Delhi, it looks as if there is a democracy deficit. And yet, there’s been a lot of development on the ground. What did you see?

I did not encounter any evidence of “development”, at least not on the grand scale promised