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Kashmir conflict-revisited

In early1980s, walking through the lush green fields, on crisp spring and summer mornings, on my way from the student hostel to the chemis...

Monday, August 23, 2010

Brazen agenda of communalists


This was not my day of writing; I didn't want. But then something disturbing provoked me into it. It all seems to be complacent that communalists are lying low after being crushed in the last elections. But the truth is they are not; they are eating the very grass-roots and they are spreading their venom using innocuous channels. They are active in holding their camps in places like Ladakh with obvious target being security personnel; in their scheme of things Buddhists of Ladakh hardly count. Remember when Liberhan commission pointed out to the infiltration of the government and the administration by communal forces at every level and which according to the commission continues to thrive. That didn't happen overnight and again they are not doing it overnight but only difference is now they have become brazen. Otherwise their stage managed enactment with so-called student representatives from Kashmir and deliverance of admonishments would have been circumspect. The worrisome aspect is inclusion in their ranks of journalists and other so-called eminent up-starts who sternly delivered oft-repeated mantra of India not yielding an inch on Kashmir. To delve into the question of state of things reaching such an impasse that the very communalists who were clearly beaten in the elections have temerity to raise their ugly tentacles one might invoke divinity but the very reason are the people and organizations who seem have to lost their sense of responsibility in conjunction with the loss of reason. The political parties on the left were at their admirable best to keep communalists away from getting into power until arrogance and egos took over. What else does explain their joining hands with communalists? And complete bizarre unexplained phenomenal silence of progressive parties on pressing situation like Kashmir in particular and the Maoist movement in general is yielding space for communalists to fill in. It is those parties that should be pressing the Congress government to make steps towards a just solution in Kashmir instead of letting communalists set the agenda. The enactment of farce by communalists through holding so-called discussions with the representatives of Kashmir does not mean that BJP and its allied organizations underwent overnight heart-transplant and replaced with the one that is filled with sympathy for Kashmiris. Their gimmicks are meant more for gullible ignorant Indian middle class, their ultimate vote fodders, whom they want to assure about theirs being a nationalistic party. Otherwise their behind the scene anti-activity, at the time when an agreement on Kashmir through back-channel diplomacy  was on the verge, had reached obscene level. Again they could not resist obscenity even during the stage managed conclave and here I quote Tarun Vijay from his blog in Times of India "Jayant Chaudhary was candid. "You want peace, right?" And everyone nodded. So friends, peace as I read somewhere, is like lovemaking. You have to keep your eyes shut and let the process take its course. Coming on a dialogue table with preconditions spoils the game." For me to put this line from the ugly blog "Kashmir's 'Azadi' with the tricolor" by Tarun Vijay was itself a low point. But then I wanted to make a point. How can these communalists be sincere when their government in Gujrat stage managed encounters to kill innocents and if they really had a change of heart they might ask who killed MP Ehsan Jaffri.

Friday, August 13, 2010

Sanguine Choices


In the last few days the Indian newspaper have finally taken time from their routine trivia to notice the unrest in Kashmir and come out with sanguine advice to the Indian government to resolve the matter within the ambit of constitution. Though, it was quite gratifying to know that those newspapers while busy in reporting on matters like butt of John Abraham could spare some thoughts on precarious situation in Kashmir. But at the end one would think it is probably in the interest of the nation that idiots continue to concentrate on those matters and leave Kashmir alone, if their propositions do not allow them to go beyond the ambit of constitution and they do not see the writing on the wall that the current movement in Kashmir is nothing less than 'Intifada' in making. The self-strangulating beliefs of national pride; not yielding an inch; and Kashmir being integral part will only bring harm and disrepute. As an aspiring power India can raise its stature through magnanimous choices, which include just and proper care of all sections of society. After all, it is people of all hue that constitute a country and that too for a country like India that derives pride from its diversity. Virtually for the last two decade if not earlier India has been ruling the land in Kashmir while forfeiting hearts and minds of the population through wanton suppression. For once the within the ambit of constitution mindset needs to be rethought before irretrievability attains permanency.

Wednesday, August 11, 2010

Wolves who are not even ashamed about their being wolves

BJP questions PM’s Kashmir autonomy remark

TIMES NEWS NETWORK & AGENCIES, Aug 11, 2010, 01.10pm IST


Then somebody tells me it is just like any other political party and they are not wolf in sheep's clothing

Monday, August 9, 2010

Kashmir conundrum-the human cost


The turmoil in valley took militant turn in 1989. Estimates on the number of people killed, directly and indirectly, in the conflict have largely varied with attendant accusations of over and under-estimations. Nevertheless, that doesn't answer the core question 'Does the exact number of casualties really matter?' Hasn't the greatest casualty been loss of innocence, an integral part of Kashmiri psyche? And worse than all has been the loss of human dignity and value. No one can underestimate loss of human lives that left hardly any family in Kashmir unaffected. Loss of family members, close and distant relatives, friends and acquaintances, prominent personalities and innocent unconcerned individuals must have left a void no unaffected individual can ever understand. I don't think even a book could lessen the grief of Fatima Bhutto over the violent loss of her father. But worst fate is left in store for the living, which besides grieving for their dead, are left to bear the brunt of all miseries and indignities. The violence perpetrated by the militants in the valley has been matched by the armed apparatus of the state. The number of people dead is compounded by disappearance of individuals without a trace, and their kin are left in a space between convulsing despair and unbearable hope. Does anyone in any sanity believe that a population can be won over by unbridled repression; through midnight knocks at the doors by security forces; by shutting down the entire localities and keeping populations out to weather elements; by being constantly strip searched and shouted and shoved at the check points? An unnoticed aspect of the entire sordid saga of violence in Kashmir has been loss of lives of underpaid security personnel and undoubted despair of their families that never makes it to any headlines. Like any predictable shoddy old tale, the scenario of felling of one or two security personnel in a patrol due to fire from a single sniper and berserk indiscriminate retaliations, have been repeated time and again from one place to another. In my naivety I have always asked myself about objectives, if there are any other than filling in of log books, of those security patrols in densely populated areas of the valley achieve, except for provoking fury in general public; becoming targets of miscreant snipers; bringing further alienation through indiscriminate retaliation and causing avoidable casualties of innocents. True Kashmir has been allowed to simmer as part of global power-play and has always been brought curiously back into, rather than back from, the brink, whenever, vested interests felt threatened from the possible ascendancy of normalcy. But digging into the roots and causes doesn't bring any solution until human values and dignity are brought back to the population and misplaced use of violence as mean to find a solution is discarded. And for attainment of those goals paramount onus lies with the Indian government who solely can take necessary measures that include: 1) back channel diplomacy involving eminent and influential people from Kashmir; 2) removal of use of force from equation and complete abrogation of Armed Forces act; 3) restoration of human dignity and institution of a semblance of transparency (how do those families numbering 1000s reconcile, whose members have disappeared); 4) and as Manmohan Singh once declared stars can be limit, Indian government should declare wider autonomy and even if by doing so government loses its majority so be it. If it could withstand assaults of communist parties against nuclear deal it can sure survive onslaught by rightist elements on this also and make India better in the long run. To start with instead of heaping miseries on the days of national celebration government can try to reach out the population through aiding affected people; providing health care facilities; improving power supply or through any other damned humanitarian way instead of organizing sham celebrations with entire population shut down. Independence Day is approaching and the mock spectacles will be repeated all over the valley. May be one is being too naïve to hope for any change; how could vested interests tolerate any infringements into their cozy world; one needs not to forget that those mock parades, mock unfurling of flags; and everything associated keep huge amounts rolling.