10.7.10

Kashmir's Inner Demons

The People’s War
Kashmir's Inner Demons
by Farzana Versey
Counterpunch, July 9-11

Talking in terms of when the situation normalises in Kashmir amounts to living in a fool’s paradise. That the person saying so happens to be the chief minister of the state reveals the paucity of any real incentive to find solutions. Situations do not normalise as a matter of course when people in a place have been fighting a battle within.

A nine-year-old’s death during this tense-filled month clearly shows that no one is in control. While the home minister, P. Chidambaram, has insinuated the role of the Lashkar-e-Taiba, it is akin to playing to the gallery. After a while, it stops being a popcorn moment of watching the skirmishes in celluloid fashion. The government intercepted a conversation between hardliner separatists discussing the possibility of causing causalities in a procession on the outskirts of Srinagar. One office-bearer said, “At least 15 people should be martyred today." This was a 20,000 crowd. Nothing happened because the cops dispersed the mob with a cane charge. So much for the hardline terrorist plan and the sleuthing by the intelligence agencies.

The real dramatis personae this time are within the state. There is the ruling party leader Omar Abdullah, Mehbooba Mufti of the People’s Democratic Party and the separatist Hurriyat’s Mirwaiz Omar Farooq.

The Centre plays a guest appearance.

Abdullah states that the Kashmir crisis is not because of bad governance. It is most certainly not the only reason if he means during his tenure, but it has been bad governance all along. His silence for the most part has not helped and when he does speak it exposes his lack of political will and sensitivity. Commenting on the loss of civilian lives, he said, “Being a father, I can feel the pain of those parents who have lost their child, I appeal all of the parents to counsel their children to not go outside their homes during the violence or in curfew and don’t indulge themselves in anti-national activities.”

Is good governance all about imprisoning children inside their homes? Isn’t good governance about trying to put a stop to such violence that is at least within manageable limits? Are the young people who are coming out in the streets and pelting stones indulging in anti-national activities? Has he not seen that the police have begun carrying little bricks too? This is not the voice of terrorism but of frustration.

Worse, there have been attacks on media persons. The Press Guild of Kashmir issued a statement saying, “Not allowing media persons to move and cover the situation tantamount to banning the media and that is what the state government has done indirectly.”

Abdullah can therefore reach his own conclusions because he is indulging in suppression of information. He alludes to the youth being used by vested interests. Why does he not name them? Everyone is a vested interest in Kashmir because each life is in danger and each human being there is living on the razor’s edge for two decades.

It is naïve of him to suggest that vested interests and anti-national forces are working together. Most local separatist groups can be broadly referred to as anti-Centre, not anti-national. Several issues need to be resolved, and that they are not is the problem of the government of India and not the extremist factions. What kind of a society is it where the ruling party leader says that normalcy will return if people obey the curfew? The people of the state are not sheep that they can be herded together to obey such diktats. Besides, are curfews the answer to the problems in the Valley? Will they assuage the disaffection of the people, bring back economic prosperity, prevent the influx of outside forces, and end the demands of separatist groups?

In what appears to be a case of ‘he has lost it’, at a press conference Abdullah appealed to senior citizens and religious preachers to spread the message of peace and help to bring normalcy in the affected areas.

Senior citizens have lost their children in the years of insurgency in the state and the peace process is not about homilies. As for religious preachers, he is transforming a political issue into a seminary dialogue and buffering the image of it as a jihad, which is playing into the hands of certain elements that have been pushing this agenda to justify their own religious idea.

He then went on a completely different track by holding out for the actions of the young people by bringing in the heavy-handedness of security forces that beat up locals and this could as a consequence be seen as retaliation. Excesses by security personnel are not unknown and have been going on for quite some time. This is not reprisal against that. He is using a simplistic yardstick because this is what he is comfortable with.

Undertrial prisoners and civilian casualties have another dimension. This time the youth movement seems to have been activated at the ground level, in many ways outside the purview of separatist or establishment movements. They are in effect protesting against bad governance, whether or not he wishes to admit it.

Mehbooba Mufti has blamed both the central and state governments. "Law and order is directly controlled by New Delhi. Now the governor has passed an order asking all departments to submit a monthly progress report on development activities to him directly. So, what does Abdullah do?” It is a relevant query. The elected representative has little power and therefore cannot hold forth on governance. However, surprisingly, Mirwaiz Omar Farooq believes, “She is a politician, so she blames the state government. But the current movement has nothing to do with governance issues. It is totally related to the cause of the Kashmiris and the political solution of the larger Kashmir issue."

This is word-play. The Hurriyat leaders are politicians too, although not elected by the people. The larger Kashmir issue and the cause of the Kashmiris cannot exist in a vacuum and are related to governance. If they were not, why would the leaders rant against the Centre’s apathy or the State’s lack of initiative? Security is a matter of governance. Autonomy and other demands may be the macro issues, but their demand has sprung forth from the attitude of the Centre, the infiltration from across the border and infighting amongst the various militant outfits.

If a basic aspect like governance is resulting in such convergent views then there is little hope of there being any whiff of the real thing. If Mirwaiz says, "The situation is quite violent. The administration and New Delhi is trying to showcase it as a few cases of sporadic violence. But that's certainly not the case. New Delhi has always tried to manage the Kashmir issue; never tried to find a solution", then he must not speak with a forked tongue and absolve the Centre and the state only to take to task other political parties. He must not forget that during every elections heads roll and almost never of the political leaders who find different portfolios in different parties. It is the person going out to vote who has his head on the chopping block.

It does not need to be reiterated that the Kashmir issue is a complex one, but when the armed forces fight civilians, it is also not a matter of separatist aspirations. It is about a badly-administered state that is not providing basic infrastructure and opportunities to the citizens.

The youth pelting stones represent themselves. It is precious irony that in a state that wants to fight for freedom, the freedom of individuals to express their own anger is being manipulated by various power centres – of the government and the separatists.

The larger Kashmir issue is this – peace for the people by the people and of the people.

7 comments:

  1. FV: "Mehbooba Mufti has blamed both the central and state governments. "Law and order is directly controlled by New Delhi. Now the governor has passed an order asking all departments to submit a monthly progress report on development activities to him directly. So, what does Abdullah do?”"

    Mehbooba Mufti works for Pakistani interests and does not mind violent jihad as a tool towards "independent Kashmir" -- she and her family are straightout terrorist-sympathizers in J&K (let us recall that the Jihad in J&K started in 1990 with the fake kidnapping of Mehbooba Mufti's sister and MOhammed Mufti abusing his role as Home Minister of India to free his daughter) and they are not shy with their opinions either. So Mehbooba's views on such matters must be treated with the contempt it deserves.

    People who want to compromise the territorial integrity and their overground supporters are not allowed to pretend that they speak for Indian interests -- they speak for their own parochial interests, nothing more.

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  2. FV:"The larger Kashmir issue is this – peace for the people by the people and of the people."

    FV, I believe that would be ignoring the rather large part Pakistan plays in instigating violence in that state. People who commit violence against the state should face all the violence the state can heap on them -- there is only one entity that is allowed to use violence and that is the Indian state. If pakistani proxies want to try their hand in committing violence on Indian citizens in J&K or elsewhere, they are welcome to try and fail and pay for it with their lives.

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  3. FV: "This is word-play. The Hurriyat leaders are politicians too, although not elected by the people. "

    The Hurriyat also openly takes money from Pakistan, so let us not pretend that these Hurriyat jokers are in the same category as political parties like the PDP or the NC that actually stood in elections and won them, unlike the Hurriyat that takes orders from Islamabad and trots out various excuses for not taking part in Indian elections.

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  4. "The larger Kashmir issue is this – peace for the people by the people and of the people."

    Nonsense. The larger issue is Pakistani initiated terrorism in J&K. The Kashmiris live off taxpayer money from the rest of India, and constantly complain that they are being oppressed, even as they send their Hindu Kashmiri compatriots to live in refugee camps in srinagar...and we are all supposed to sympathize with the same scumbags who took over all the land and property of the same people living in New Delhi? Sure, why not.

    This article stands out for its worthless analysis, with all due respect.

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  5. As long as there are external entities manipulating events in J&K, the Indian govt. can only manage the situation. Solving J&K requires non interference from Pakistan and China, but one would have to actually pay attention to the news to know stuff like that.

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  6. Y Kashmir is still a burning issue? when Kashmiris have no choice left..even Pakistan backed out from backing them for their freedom.

    circle

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  7. Al:

    The history of Kashmir is not as simple as Mehbooba Mufti’s family history. And separatist movement preceded the kidnapping of her sister. It wasn’t even called jihad in those days.

    If the movement for autonomy was not legitimate the GOI would not be participating in dialogue with separatists, and Pakistan. Therefore, it is more than parochial interests.

    FV:"The larger Kashmir issue is this – peace for the people by the people and of the people."

    FV, I believe that would be ignoring the rather large part Pakistan plays in instigating violence in that state. People who commit violence against the state should face all the violence the state can heap on them -- there is only one entity that is allowed to use violence and that is the Indian state. If pakistani proxies want to try their hand in committing violence on Indian citizens in J&K or elsewhere, they are welcome to try and fail and pay for it with their lives.


    It is not merely Pakistani infiltrators who are losing their lives. It is mostly civilians, local militants and our security personnel.

    Re. the Hurriyat, anyone participating in a political dialogue and there are factions of the Hurriyat. There is one extreme faction that is aligned to Pakistan. Elections in J&K are a joke. Period.

    "The larger Kashmir issue is this – peace for the people by the people and of the people."

    Nonsense. The larger issue is Pakistani initiated terrorism in J&K. The Kashmiris live off taxpayer money from the rest of India, and constantly complain that they are being oppressed, even as they send their Hindu Kashmiri compatriots to live in refugee camps in srinagar...and we are all supposed to sympathize with the same scumbags who took over all the land and property of the same people living in New Delhi? Sure, why not.


    What are your sources? If the Kashmiris are living off the Indian tax-payer’s money, then going by what you say, the Indian tax-payer is helping insurgency. Your stand is completely limited. As for Kashmiri Pundits, yeah, sure, they all live in refugee camps and were sent off. I have said it several times, there is enough material on what happened that made them leave and who was behind it. You better think a bit before talking about Kashmiris (I assume you mean the non-pandits) complaining of being oppressed. They are oppressed.

    As long as there are external entities manipulating events in J&K, the Indian govt. can only manage the situation. Solving J&K requires non interference from Pakistan and China, but one would have to actually pay attention to the news to know stuff like that.

    Right. So, ‘news’ from media sources is all we have to depend on, and suddenly the media becomes so right. Everybody knows that there are external entities, and it is the job of the Indian government to more than ‘manage the situation’. China is not important here, but Pakistan is. There are parts of Kashmir in that country; autonomy was the issue, until we let go off the opportunity and alienated our people. Now, we have to live with tripartite talks. Incidentlaly, the GOI has often preferred to talk with Pakistan rather than the Kashmiris. Read Yasin Malik’s old statements.

    This article stands out for its worthless analysis, with all due respect.

    As long as it stands out and gets you to think/fume, it is bloody worth it, with all due respect.

    PS: I have said what I wanted to here and in several pieces and they will reappear. My positions are clear. I will not be able to engage in further back-and-forth dialogue on the same thing, although you may say what you wish to.

    Circle:

    Kashmir is a burning issue because no one wants to solve it. Neither Indian nor Pakistan is interested in the people of the region.

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