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A Current View On Jammu and Kashmir
A Current View On Jammu and Kashmir
A Current View On Jammu and Kashmir
The Nation has been keenly watching the ongoing hiatus in the Kashmir
Valley. Those who understand the political stakes involved and the vested interests
at play, trying to jockey themselves into favourable positions once sanity prevails –
are sickened at the unnecessary violence and the loss of life. The vast majority –
who don’t understand – fall into two camps. One thinks that Kashmiris are being
brutally repressed and the other feels that they are being pampered and wonders
what the fuss is all about. Both, of course are far from the truth.
I’d like to put down a fresh perspective on the issue, conceived from
studying J & K for decades and my experience of having served there for five
separate tenures – over eight years in all.
A word about myself. I’m a recently retired Army officer from the South.
I’m completely apolitical and though a Hindu, have no love lost for
fundamentalists – either Hindu or Muslim. I have no hatred for Kashmiris nor any
prejudices against them. I’m taking a completely impartial view, though I
sometimes may sound somewhat cold or emotionless – which the truth often is.
We’re not going to solve the Kashmir issue through emotion – only a rational and
logical solution will work.
Apologists keep talking about “bullets against stones”. For heaven’s sake, do
they expect the Police and Para-military to pick up the pelters stones and throw it
back at them? Certainly not. Violence will beget violence and the Police will use
the weapons at their disposal and upgrade their response as the violence continues.
And that’s true of any Democracy in the world. India is, by all definitions, a “soft”
State (poor intelligence, poorly armed and equipped Police, reactive and slow
responses due to chronic indecisiveness, no political consensus even for national
issues and constant back-pedaling in the face of political opposition and bickering).
But the State response, while not trying to be deliberately repressive, can certainly
be ham-handed and ill-thought out – and there will be collateral damage. Could
this prolonged violent agitation have happened in any Western Democracy ?
Would it have been permitted in any illiberal Muslim State – like Pakistan, Turkey,
Indonesia or Libya ? Certainly not. Or try it in Theocratic Nations like Saudi
Arabia or Iran ! Or even in Communist China. It would have been crushed. Even
in any other State in India, it would have received a much sterner response. Only J
& K could have got away with it.
All talk shows have shown that the Kashmiris leadership focuses on
the over 100 deaths in 100 odd days. That, I’m afraid is neither here nor there.
Admittedly, deaths of innocent young people is sad and deserves our heartfelt
sympathy, but to make it a political issue is fishing in troubled waters. In India
death is cheap – witness the 100 odd deaths in a week in a train accident and floods
in UP and Uttaranchal. The number of Kashmiris dying is not relevant – the
manner of their deaths is. Most have died not in surreptitious or suspicious actions,
but in a legitimate open manner in Police action to quell dangerous and violent
mobs. There can be no prosecution of policemen doing their job at peril to their
own life – or are policemen’s lives cheap ? The risk is of the Police refusing to face
mobs or running away – as we saw in the Gujjar agitation. An invitation to
lawlessness across the Country. Where there has been prima facie malafide
intentions or deliberate use of unnecessary force, the demand for an investigation is
legitimate. The separatists focus on these deaths tends to divert attention from real
issues. What do the agitators want ? What action does the Govt need to take ?
Where do we go from here ? Instead all talk is – did the CM visit the hospitals or
the victims’ families ? Is there a failure of governance ? Of course not. Probably
because nobody in the media knows the right question to ask.
Kashmiris – your future lies in your hands. You can always elect your Govt
and your CM, as you have done recently. You don’t want the CRPF in your urban
areas ? Or the Army in your rural ? Throw them out. You don’t like the AFSPA ?
Repeal it. You don’t like curfews ? Lift it. You want jobs ? Create them. You
think the Centre is not responsive enough ? Make them listen to your genuine
grievances. Or too interfering ? Tell them to lay off – we Kashmiris can look after
ourselves. You want communal and religious harmony ? Harmonise them
yourself – and as a start point, call the Pandits back to their homes, from where the
terrorists chased them out. Do you think all of this is too hard to accomplish ? Not
at all. All you have to do is be forward looking and positive. Forget your turbulent
History or at least keep it in cold storage, and for the time being maintain peace
and calm. Stop listening to divisive leaders, who are relics of the past and want to
foment trouble just to stay relevant. Say “enough is enough” to terrorists and
infiltrators from across. Trust your mainstream political leaders like Omar
Abdullah and Mehbooba Mufti who genuinely want the best for you. Just do these
few things and voila! You will be on a fast track to peace, prosperity and well-
being which the young of Kashmir have always craved for and never seen. The
AFSPA will melt away with the morning mist. The Central Armed Forces will
become unemployed and rumble away in their trucks (except for the minimum
numbers required to be deployed on the Line of Control – and they will be looking
outwards.) You will be free to pursue your dreams and the dreams of your
children; that is the legacy you owe them – not of bitterness, hatred and violence.
And all of that is in your hands, to be done by your own volition. Start today.