|| HAMID H GANAI/ ZAHOOR GULZAR
Kashmir is on the boil again with 70 people losing lives and over 7000 people suffering grievously injures in the protests following killing of Hizb commander Burhan Muzafar Wani on July 8.While the cycle of killings is continuing, the use of pellet guns, even after much hue and cry by all political parties, hasn’t seen any end till date. Amid the uprising the Prime Minister Narendra Modi tried to reach out to people of Kashmir, invoking Vajpayee’s mantra of “Insaniyat, Jamhooriyat and Kashmiriyat” following All Party Meeting in new Delhi that discussed Kashmir unrest. While Rajya Sabha passed the unanimous resolution expressing deep concern on developments in the Valley, similar discussions were held in Lok Sabha as well regarding the Kashmir unrest.
Following the initiatives the union home minister visited the Valley second time in the third week of the August and met with political delegations. But the move was termed as “futile exercise” by the political analysts asserting the home minister was not serious to meet the “real stakeholders”. Have the ground realities changed in the Kashmir in past over 50 days? One can say the writing is on the wall. What are the political rulers doing in Srinagar and Delhi to reach out to people of Kashmir? Pumping pellets and bullets on protesters, use of excess force and deployment of more security forces in cities, towns and streets will not help pacify the anger.
There is a complete mistrust among masses and the Hurriyat leaders are in no mood to hold talks with New Delhi as they know the fate of such talks held on Kashmir issue in the past. In her maiden August 15 speech here Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti blamed the successive governments both at state and centre for Kashmir problem. “No serious efforts were made to address the genuine problem of Kashmir and both state and centre leaders are equally responsible for this,” she said. M odi w hile m eeting t he o pposition parties of J&K led by former Chief Minister Omar Abdullah said New Delhi was ready to talk to all stake holders for permanent solution of Kashmir which is a political in nature. The hints for dialogue by New Delhi, the constituting of parliamentary committees of all parties and civil society groups that are sent to visit Kashmir after every uprising are seen as nothing more than an exercise to calm tempers in times of crisis. Unlike in the past the separatist aren’t in control of the streets protests this time.
The present situation is entirely different from 2010 as the uprising is led by a young generation – the children of the conflict. The ball is now in the court of New Delhi now to take steps for permanent solution of the problem as the Prime Minister has endorsed the reality that development alone can’t resolve Kashmir problem.
This uprising is purely different from 2008, 2009 and 2010 unrest and is led by a new generation born after 1990- the children of the conflict zone. The large gatherings of men, young boys and women in remote area of the Valley aren’t protesting against killing of Burhan Wani alone. Instead, Kashmir has risen to endorse what slain Burhan stood for. Today tens of thousands of people are on streets in Kashmir and the protests have now spread to Chenab Valley, Poonch , Rajoori and other areas of Jammu province. Kashmiris are sacrificing their lives for past 68 years. On 13 July, 1931, when Kashmiris were protesting for Azadi against Dogra rule, the Dogra army gunned down 27 Kashmiris in downtown Srinagar. Similar, massacres were done by Dogra army and Police in Anantnag, Pulwama and other towns and villages of Valley to curb the mass uprising which had gained momentum in 1931 against Dogra rule in erstwhile Jammu and Kashmir.
It is believed that hundreds of people were killed by Dogra police army in different parts of the state. Since July 1931, Kashmir has seen many ups and downs. But the most unfortunate days were witnessed in August 1947 when Maharaja Hari Singh acceded to Union of India against wishes of people of Jammu and Kashmir. While the Maharaja’s decision was against wishes of people, Pakistan invaded the state to take control of the Muslim majority state which saw the Maharaja seeking support from India. The development saw the Indian army landing in Srinagar on October, 1947 which tuned Kashmir into a battle field between India and Pakistan.
Today, the BJP government at the centre is completely in a denial mood and reluctant to even accepting that Kashmir is a” political dispute”. There is strong competition between two main national level parties, Congress and BJP, in the name of “nationalism” and at the cost of Kashmir. The Congress has ruled the Indian state for 60 years after independence and their successive Prime Ministers and leaders were never sincere to settle and solve the Kashmir problem. First prime minister of India Jawahar Lal Nehru had himself promised to Kashmiri nation in UN that they will be given chance through referendum/ plebiscite to decide their fate. But the words of Nehru never translated into action. As per the statements of all political parties of National level in New Delhi the solution of Kashmir lies only within the constitution of India.
Some of the political analytics say that what is worth fighting and defending now was what remains of Article 370. Although many Kashmiri’s today are skeptical of realization of their dream of “Azadi” the sentiment however can’t be wished away. Today, Kashmir is one of the long pending political problems in the world. When Kashmir erupted in 1990, it was a sudden explosion and people were not aware about the cost for demand for freedom. Once the state crushed the initial phase of militancy from 1990 to 2000, the period witnessed large scale human rights violations. Each time armed forces would conduct cordon, crack-down and search operations looking for militants, the entire male population would be herded to one place and one by one they would be paraded before masked informer or Ikhwanis.
There was so much fear that hardly anybody would protest. In the beginning of new millennium, while Azadi continued to be the main demand, militancy started to take a backseat and hopes for negotiated settlement got birth in Kashmir. The track-II diplomacy was put to use and even militants were invited by Government for negotiation and talks on Kashmir settlement. By 2008 there was a strong realization that dialogue alone would help and violence or gun was no solution to Kashmir. In 2008, 2009 and 2010 uprising, there were scores of instances where people made human chains around security bunkers and army establishments and around forces’ vehicles to avoid any confrontation. People would throw stones only when the government disallowed peaceful protests.
The government‘s response to the civilian rallies ad public marches were the same as against the militants movement during the uprisings. The peaceful protests were called “Agitational Terrorism” and crushed. The former union home minister P Chidambaram recently, in a TV interview on national channel, said that Government of India committed serious mistakes in 2008 and 2010 while handling the Kashmir unrest. The successive union governments have not learnt a lesson and same mistakes are repeated again in 2016.
But there is anger on the streets which can’t be crushed by bullets and pellets as people seem to have become fearless of death. Young men, children and teenagers who go out to protests are aware of the costs. It’s a peoples’ movement today. The ball is in the court of India and if they are really serious and if the Prime Minister is really concerned about situation in Kashmir, he should solve the problem once for all since he has finally endorsed the reality that Kashmir problem cannot be solved by development or packages alone.