A cold morning in December 1975

It was a cold December morning in 1975. It had been in many ways a monumental year for both Kashmir and India. And that morning despite being cold and cloudy had an idyllic aura and promise for future. If there was a foreboding of future upheavals, that was not something that many at that time had on their minds. Two major events of the year, which was almost coming to an end, were an accord between Sheikh Abdullah and Indira Gandhi following the culmination of torturous Beg-Parthasarthy talks. The accord paved way for Sheikh Abdullah to become chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir almost twenty-two years after his illegal and most ill conceived dismissal as the Prime Minister of the state by the Indian administration. In the interim, governance in the state had a feeling of being unreal with hand picked chief ministers lacking democratic legitimacy and who were at all times at the mercy of their masters in Delhi. The assumption of power of power in the state by Sheikh Abdullah suddenly brought gravitas and a sense to the administration that until then had tethered on sleaziness and illegitimacy. The effect was real, eclectic and perceptible. If there was a single department, which stood out, it was education that until then had suffered from scourge of patronage and mass copying. There is another but completely pertinent matter that in a few years the mechanics of Indian machinery and unscrupulous local politicians who had lost crumbs of power would turn that accord into a ploy to strengthen the occupation rather than guaranteeing the agreed maximum autonomy to the state. As per the accord itself, it is always convenient to pass a judgment with the benefit of hindsight but to be present in that era is an altogether different matter.      

Another consequential chapter of that momentous year, which shook the very foundations of the democratic structures of the Indian state, was promulgation of the internal emergency by Indira Gandhi following the verdict of Allahabad high court that disqualified her from holding any elected office. That declaration itself, incarceration of many opposition leaders, complete censorship of news media and spates of constitutional amendments bulldozed through the truncated parliament virtually paralyzed the Indian democracy. India was enveloped in a pal of gloom that due to the very presence of Sheikh Abdullah in power did not affect Kashmir. The two events would eventually coalesce as Indira Gandhi for some reasons realized the wisdom of democracy and declared elections in the country in spring of 1977, despite the vehement opposition from her coterie that included notorious Sanjay Gandhi. Those elections resulted in a complete loss for Indira Gandhi and her party at all over India. The local congress party incidentally under none other than Mufti Saeed tried to engineer a coup of sort by withdrawing support to Sheikh Abdullah, which virtually amounted to reneging on their promises made in the accord. But for the then governor of the state L. K. Jha, wily Mufti Sayeed might have succeeded back then in attaining power. L. K. Jha instead on the advice of the Chief Minister called for fresh elections that gave a huge mandate to National Conference and resulted in decimation of Congress and other disparate groups that had opportunistically joined hands. Mufti Sayeed did get his chance to play a spoilsport not once but many times after the death of Sheikh Abdullah. But that would be for some other time.    

It was on that December morning of 1975, I went to meet Sheikh Nazir at his office-residence at Nedous. Sheikh Nazir besides being a close confidante of Sheikh Abdullah was an eminent practicing lawyer. I was in my teens but that never prevented Sheikh Nazir from greeting me with dignified courteous civility. He would always get up from his chair and extend his hand. On that particular day, when I entered his office he as usual got up from his chair with an extended handed, despite there being a number of people from National Conference sitting in his office. Once he finished dealing with other visitors, he asked me that I should accompany him to his office on the Court Road so that he could talk me on the way. I went out with him expecting an awaiting vehicle along with an entourage. There was no vehicle and there was no entourage and we started to walk towards the Court Road and for me that was an exalted lesson in humility. That was besides, the other things I learnt from Sheikh Nazir during that walk that lasted close to forty minutes. I had privilege to visit Sheikh Nazir occasionally following years until my research work completely consumed me. There was always that uprightness and dignity without a trace of arrogance. He was always courteous. I was filled with a tinge of sadness on reading the news about his death on February 24, 2015. I recalled with a pride for having known such a dignified human being who could have attained any position in the government but chose not to.     

-Rajiv Kumar

That dark night in Ayodhaya

It was on 22nd December 1949 when thugs of Hindu Mahasabha, following a conceited plan succeeded in planting an idol in the Babri Masjid in Ayodhaya. Through thoroughly duplicitous mechanics in connivance with a partisan district magistrate and an ambivalent congress government led by Gobind Ballabh Pant, they created a semblance of a dispute, when there was none. The structure had a been a mosque for centuries and it never was a temple; it was never disputed. The temple was located outside the mosque and both existed in complete harmony for centuries, though the lunatics of hinduvta always made attempts to take over the structure at different times. But on that night they sent Abhiram Das into the mosque with an idol when guarded by a compliant policeman and next morning they created a mass frenzy by pretending a miracle. They executed their nefarious act after hatching that plan for years. Then they waited another forty years  before thugs led by Advani and company launched a final assault on that historical monument and brought it down along with it the social fabric of the society. India must feel safe now, as those who planned that deceit in 1949 and created mayhem in 1992 are now ruling the country.

Poisonous chalice and fragmented mandate

Who could have ever predicted the surreality of our times where an ultra rabid Hindu party became a leading force in the state of Jammu and Kashmir? Formation of any government seems all but improbable without BJP being part of it. Though, it singularly failed to win a single constituency in Kashmir, nevertheless it did find find enough people to fight election in the valley under its banner. Though not many will remember, the party had tried in earlier times to get a foothold in Kashmir.

Back in an earlier era, elections in Kashmir would mostly be decided, without votes being cast, in the offices of district deputy commissioners. The elections for the central parliament and the state assemblies would be announced with all fanfare matched by declaration of candidacies by various political outfits and independent aspirants. The ruling party, democratic national conference (DNC) that later turned itself into a franchise of Indian National Congress, of course, would anoint its own list of candidates to become members of the state legislature. The due process of elections would begin with filings of nominations and would in most cases end on the day of scrutiny. Barring a miracle, most of the candidates not belonging to the ruling dispensation would find their nominations rejected. The reasons for rejections could range from outright bizarre to utter absurd. For a few days there would be protests and outrages that eventually petered out with time and newly elected members of the state assembly assume their due places of power.

Under those circumstances, it was around late 1966 or 1967, the Jan Sangh, an earlier and equally rabid avatar of BJP made a foray in Kashmir. It opened its offices in dingy houses,  recruited workers, mainly Pandits. In the election of spring 1967, it did announce its candidates for some constituencies but its bid ended on the day of scrutiny along with all other opposition candidates. Back then even at an all India level party was consider no more than a motley crowd of rabble rousers with following confined to urban centers. But its rabid agenda was as obscurantist as it remains now. But perhaps lack of dissemination of information allowed the party to function in Kashmir for a few months, until one of its bigoted leaders, Balraj Madhok, decided to visit the place to raise its fortunes by asking, at a public rally, Muslims to migrate to Pakistan. That was the last time anybody in Kashmir saw a Jan Sangh office until now.

The irony is that in that era when elections were decided in favor of the ruling party by returning officers, Mufti Sayeed used to be beneficiary of the system. Now as a head of PDP, he has been handed a poisonous chalice in the form of a fractured mandate. Should he join the party of Madhok's descendants or not? But then every chess game has its moment of checkmate.

March of dementedness

When Modi and his brigade took power in May last year, all I thought was that they will use cowardice to propagate their agenda of divisiveness and thuggery. They, while paying homage to Gandhi, will revere Godse; while talking development, they will start imposing their obscurantist world view on the country. As it turned out as a matter of fact they have done all that until now and one can easily perceive that they have just started and any  prophecy about shape of things at the fruition of their retrograde diligence can be anything but dreadful. What I never foresaw was level of their utter dementedness, which would end up embarrassing the entire country.

Hard it may be, but it is inconceivable that Modi didn't believe his utterances about  plastic surgery and genetics in ancient India. He was talking to surgeons and physicians. The inclusion of a session on Vedic science in Indian Science Congress where right wing leaning pseudo scientists pronounced prevalence of interplanetary airplanes in ancient India that too seven thousands years ago. That must have been hard for those scientists and academics of Indian origin who not so long ago were admiring every word that Modi rambled in Madison Square. Foolish utterances of those in the Modi government and his party have attained a comically predictable certainty.

Those developments might have come as a shock bordering on disgust to those who believed in that humbug of promised growth and progress. Had they predicated their government agenda on those premises, the education of the country would not have been put in the hands of a semi-literate person who would be appointing appointing directors and ordering vice-chancellors of premier institutes of education. Nations that value education never confuse mythology with history or even pertinently with science. If they really believed in religion they would be humble and not full of ignorant certitude. Alas, all they have in their agenda is implementation of their narrow demented ideas. Theirs is a march of dementedness with which they are hell bent on deluging the entire country.

15th street Washington Post

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Washington Post on 15th Street

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Vacuousness and drunken stupor

Last week a Dutch court held that country's government responsible for 1995 Srebrenica massacre in which Muslin men and boys were murdered in cold blood after the declared safe-haven protected by Dutch peace-keepers was run over by Serb forces under the command of Ratko Mladić. Ratko Mladic was the chief of the staff of the Srpska Republic army and Radovan Karadžić was the president. Both of them have been indicted by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia for their crimes against humanity and are waiting their trials at the international court. Two of them are refered to as butchers of Bosnia as they led their Serbian army with a single intent of ethnic cleansing at the very end of twentieth century in a part of Europe. Both Karadžić and Mladić remained elusive for long time until the unrelenting arm of international criminal justice penetrated their covers. The task of their capture was made easy by changed times in Serbia itself, with the ultimate thug, Milosovic having long been disposed and handed over to the war tribunal in The Hague. He died during his trial and cruelly escaped justice for his crimes that included the persecution of Kosovars that ended only through NATO bombardment. 

Pertinently, someone remarked on social media that elevation of Amit Shah as president of ruling party in India has an echo of Karadžić and Mladić returning to the corridors of power. Both Modi and his henchman indulged in no less an ethnic cleansing of their own. Judiciary might have been ambivalent in the case Modi, but there were never ambiguities concerning the culpability of Amit Shah. The ambivalence in the case of the former was nothing more than technical and has more to do with the pliability of the system than any doubts about actual intent of the crimes committed under his watch. Instead of waiting for their trial, they are now the most powerful people in the country. If one leaves their crimes aside for moment and assess as to how the the new government with massive majority is going about the bussiness of running the country.

I think no body could sum that better than Jawed Naqvi, who in a column in The Dawn described functioning of the saffron government as vacuous. He went on describe an anecdote, which is reproduced here,

"NARENDRA Modi’s instant prescriptions to cure India’s chronic troubles are vacuous or easy or both.The conclusions are reminiscent of the full moon night when Majaaz, Lucknow’s guru of wit and poetry, returned home punch drunk. The house was in a shambles. Policemen were shining torches into the ransacked cupboards. The ladies of the house were huddled in a corner, anxiety writ on their noble faces.

Spotting Majaaz in his unbuttoned sherwani and dishevelled hair, one of the sisters cried out in anguish. Whoever had broken into their house had taken away everything, she sobbed. Majaaz, we are told, watched the proceedings silently, shifting his weight from dizzy toes to tipsier heels and back.

Using the palm of his hand as a hood over his eyes he took as good a view as he could get of puzzled cops gaping at emptied out teakwood almirahs. Then, with an air of insight he muttered what seemed like a considered opinion: “Ye to kisi chor ki harkat maaloom hoti hai.” (This looks like the work of a thief.)"

Well Majaaz was drunk at the time, but Modi and his government with their limited discerning intellects are bound to indulge in absurdism more often than would be normal. Their approach to governance couldn't have been anything else because their and their supporters world-views are nothing but vacuous. That vacuousness combined with sinister communal intent is shaping their agenda. Instead of approaching Kashmir issue with a broader outlook, the saffron government has entered it through a communal fissure and at the same time started making noises of of much misunderstood article 370. 

Whatever, they understand or may even do about it, the article 370 of the constitution cannot be abrogated. Because, that is the article that defines the relationship between Jammu and Kashmir state and the union throught article 1 of the Indian constitution. Were they to abrogate the said article, the state will cease to be the part of the Indian union. And any change in the article has to be agreed by the state constituent assembly that had dissolved itself in late 1950s. The true implication is that all Indian laws extended to the state after dissolution of the constituent assembly are ipso facto illegitimate. Even if, were the government able to abrogate the article, would that solve any of the issues and undo the criminality committed by the Indian occupation of the place. 

The real absurdity lies not only in what this government does, rather in what it has meticulously avoided to do. Avoidance of discussion on ongoing human tragedy in the parliament was absurdly comical. But then like Majaaz in drunken stupor, both Modi and Sushma Sawaraj, in this case, can clearly see that Palestinians and Israelis are bombing each other. Anyway with a hard core ideological fanatic as the head of Indian Council Historical Research, they soon will have a new history, so why to take sides now.

-Rajiv Kumar

Ascendency of a descendent

On 30th January 1948, when Gandhi fell to the assassin's bullets, the head quarters of Hindu rabid organization RSS burst into celebrations all over India. When the country went into mourning, they were feeding each other sweets. They had all the reasons in the world for strutting around that despicably. The killer of Mahatma came from their ranks. And now more than a three score years later a person who owes his existence to that rabid organization has become prime minister of the same country for which Gandhi gave his life. One only wishes he had spared the farce of visiting the memorial of Gandhi and instead had laid a wreath in memory of Godse, the killer of Gandhi. At least his silent supporters are not holding back and they immediately peddled themselves to the gloating planet, like all their prayers have been answered and their liberator is at their doorsteps to release them from ten years of misery. They are descendants of those who wept at the death of Mahatma; they are celebrating ascendancy of a descendant of Godse. May be dimwits do not even get it!

The Rubicon and a morphed moderate

Tomorrow, or already today in some places, Modi will officially become prime minister in India, and with that the Rubicon will have been crossed. Nothing will ever be able to undo that leap into darkness and that will without salvage become condemned in history for all times to come. Not that there were any doubts about the emphatic magnitude of the victory; it is that categorical dominance that poked a dogmatic finger at the nation that had its genesis in idealistic principles based on universal inclusiveness and egalitarian principles of justice. The person who in his not so distant past displayed all the symptoms of a parochial behavior with complete disregard for the lives of minorities will assume power in a nation that once revered Gandhi. Ironically, or perhaps not so ironically, the man who murdered Gandhi used be member of the rabid Hindu organization that nurtured Modi. His much trumpeted development in the state he ruled stopped at boundaries of the Muslim ghettos of Ahmadabad with members of that community actively denied residences in Hindu areas through intimidation. Who could have fancied apartheid in the land of Gandhi in twenty first century without causing an outrage and anguish? The fact there were no protests, no outrages and no condemnations, makes it easier to understand saffron sweep in the country. Ironically, the same day as he was declared as winner of elections, the supreme court of India released three persons charged in a so called terrorist attack. The court admonished the home minister of the state for 'not applying his mind' and that home minister was none other than Modi. Three innocents lost eleven years of their lives and those of their kins. The word is Modi ever since his win has morphed into a moderate. A true moderate would have apologized to those three hapless poors whose life is shattered or would ask Zakia Jafri for her forgiveness. Even if he wanted to be a moderate from this day on, will his constituency of bigots let him?

Likudization of India

To state that I am disappointed by the outcome of Indian election would be a colossal understatement. The fact that a man, who by any civilized standard should have been long indicted and Imprisoned, has landed into prime ministerial chair of a country that was famed and fabled by its diversity. Rather than the beginning, election of Modi represents the culmination of a gradual process of communalisation of the country. One could draw a parallel with Pakistan, but an apt comparison would be with the Likudization of Israel. How else can one explain that out of 170 million Muslims living in India, the newly constituted parliament will have only 24 Muslim members in the lower house? And the rabid right wing party of fundamentalists, which is now the ruling party is totally bereft of any Muslim in its vast newly elected group in parliament. May be at some level the recently concluded elections have vindicated Jinnah!