Did reducing Jammu and Kashmir to a UT and abrogating its special status make a difference?

Seven years have passed since the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) introduced legislations in Parliament to implement its long-standing objective — stripping the special status accorded to the State of Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) by Article 370 of the Constitution. Through these legislations, the Union government not only abrogated the special status, but also took direct control of the State’s administration by bifurcating it into two Union Territories — J&K and Ladakh.

Union Home Minister Amit Shah, who introduced the legislations in both Houses, projected them as a panacea for J&K’s woes. Attributing the State’s poor healthcare, poverty and slow economic growth to the special status, he argued that Article 370 prevented J&K’s economic development while breeding terrorism.