Having failed to win over Kashmiri psyche even after 68 years of accession it is time for New Delhi to approach the K-issues in a just manner to understand why Burhansare born again and again in the Valley, writes Zuhaib Mir
|| ZUHAIB YOUSF MIR
One of the greatest English political theorist and a civil servant of his times, Leonard Woolf, in 1967, while commenting on the struggle that culminated in India’s independence, said “ I have no doubt that if British government had been prepared to grant in 1900 what they refused in 1900 but granted in 1920; or to grant in 1920 what they refused in 1920 but granted in 1940; or to grant in 1940 what they refused in 1940 but granted in 1947- then nine-tenth of the misery, hatred and violence, the imprisoning and terrorism, the murders, flogging, shooting, assassinations, even the racial massacres would have been avoided; the transference of power might well have been accomplished peacefully, even possibly without partition.”
Perhaps this is the best way one can embody the situation that has ensued in Kashmir after the killing or slaying or martyring or assassination of militant commander Burhan Muzaffar Wani. I used the four words because it’s debatable question amongst significant number of Kashmiri people whether he was martyred or simply executed for taking up arms. While reading about the Kashmir unrest, the phenomena that one gets acquainted with are stone pelting, insurgency, religious radicalization, social sanctity to militants, separatists inciting unrest, Pakistan sponsoring the militancy, and Aazadi or independence, a façade to align with Pakistan. Stone pelting is “Un-Islamic” and wrong but responding (not reacting) to the stone-pelters by killing and maiming them with bullets and pellet guns is monstrosity. Insurgency is wrong but crippling “freedom of expression” which is the fundamental human right is despicable. Religious radicalization is worst form of narrow-mindedness but trying to establish religious supremacy by exhibiting the power of majoritarianism is utter bigotry.
Did Delhi ever ponder on the reason as to why more than two lakh people attended the funeral of an “armed insurgent”? Separatist group conflagrating the situation is wrong but first promulgating and then stifling democracy in Kashmir is more than hypocritical. Why hasn’t the Indian establishment won over the Kashmiri psyche even after 68 years of accession and factually speaking is every fiasco in Kashmir attributed to Pakistan? I don’t claim that the actions of all the Kashmiri people throughout history have been sacrosanct but Kashmiris are more sinned against than the sinning. And its time this sequence of bigotry and hypocrisy be listed, understood and rectified. The sentiment of secession wasn’t always so strong in Kashmir.
Article 370 is the bridge that connects Jammu and Kashmir with India. But time and again the successive establishments in New Delhi have flaked down this Article making it weak. Special status is meant to make the people feel special but this is somehow making us specially challenged wit pellet guns and bullets.
During the course of history there have been spurts that invigorated this sentiment amongst people attributed to some specific demand. And when this demand wasn’t fulfilled, politicking took over turning the spark into a conflagration. But the ever-forgiving mind of a Kashmiri, over the course of time, almost forgot it and carried on with life. And this cycle went on. The 2010 unrest during the tenure of Omar Abdullah that engulfed the entire state exemplifies this cycle. On April 30, 2010, the Indian Army claimed to have thwarted an infiltration bid from across the Line of Control, at Machil Sector in Kupwara district of Jammu and Kashmir by killing three armed militants from Pakistan. However, it was later established that the encounter had been staged and that the three alleged militants were in fact civilians of Rafiabad area who had been lured to the army camp by promising them jobs as “porters” for the Army, and then shot dead in cold blood, in order to claim a cash award.
The demand that ensued was the phase wise revocation of ASFPA as this draconian law is misused pervasively. Protests that followed post this incident ended up with 110 people losing their life and thousands marred and injured. Nothing was done. The unrest was rested. And now we have another crisis that has consumed Kashmir after Burhan Wani. Burhan is not the only reason for the protests this time.
They are as a result of amalgamation of many reasons and grievances that haven’t been met in the last 2 years apart from the tacit fire that has been blazing in Kashmir about its political assertion. This usually helps reminisce the past because the past wasn’t forgotten. Economic and political regression post the floods by the breakup- patch-up government of the PDPBJP, relegating the agenda of alliance, beef-ban fiasco, constraining the talks with separatists and not involving the wider political spectrum, unholy decision to give separate colonies for Pandits creating a religious divide, establishment of Sainik colonies, absolutely no talk on the revocation of ASFPA and the idea of demolishing Article 370 that otherwise should have been strengthened (after all demolishing article 370 was the election cry by BJP’s to accomplish mission 44+) are some of the key reasons for this upheaval.
This obviously was envisaged by the political pundits and hegemony in Delhi but chose to prorogue. There are 3 insights that one can draw – that government of India did nothing and engaged no one during the interregnum between 2010 and 2016 and instead behaved as if everything was okay and thought the participation in elections is the solution while in reality it’s a part of the solution and not the solution. Secondly, stone then and stone now is reciprocated with bullet; nothing on that front has changed but hypocrisy exposed. During the Jat agitation in Haryana where the agitators pelted stones, dismantled property worth 250 billion rupees and raped more than 10 women in Murthal, where the Prime Minister stopped his cavalcade for relishing the famous Parathas, were never shot bullets at. Then the Patel agitators in Gujarat were never shot bullets at.
Thirdly, I don’t know if anyone is ready to claim the responsibility of the 110 deaths then in 2010 and 50 deaths till now. No one wants to trust Kashmir. Probably the sinning against is so grave that Delhi fears the situation like the disintegration of USSR in 1989-1991. When Mikhail Gobrechev, the Russian President, instituted reforms in USSR and empowered the people, the people used this political empowerment to secede from USSR. Article 370 is the bridge that connects Jammu and Kashmir with the Indian subcontinent. Time and again the successive establishments in India and the state have promised to strengthen it but actually did the opposite.
Every successive government from 1947 till today has flaked down this Article making it weak. Now the Kashmiri feels insecure about his sovereignty at multiple fronts giving the fringe justification for their “extreme right insurgent” activities. Special status is meant to make the people feel special but this is somehow making us specially challenged wit pellet guns and bullets. Thwarting dissent by declaring unofficial state emergency, censoring media, discontinuing mobile phones, telephone and internet services are characteristic features endemic to an autocratic state or a failing democracy.
What would an ordinary and insecure Kashmiri Muslim think when members of the government of India say heinous things like “Ramzade” and “Haramzade” (children of Ram or bast…) and the Prime Minister sleeps over it? What would Kashmiri think when Ikhlaq is lynched for allegedly possessing beef meat and the Prime Minster maintains silence on it but conveys grief about the incident of similar nature when it happened with Dalits in Gujarat. What would a Kashmir think when he is taunted by the same bigots that “during floods you begged for relief and help from army and now want to oust them”?
By these deeply disdainful measures, Delhi and the insurgents are both proving to have one thing in common: that they both believe Kashmiris are not with India, which may not be the widely accepted or the correct view or probably may be the corrective view. In the state assembly elections the BJP declared its mission 44+ agenda to exterminate Article 370 by instilling the religious sentiment in the minds of Hindus in Jammu. The counter reaction to this was that the dominant parties in Kashmir propagated amongst people to vote against this murky agenda of the BJP backed by RSS. This resulted in Jammu voting against Kashmir and Kashmir voting against Jammu, overtly and at some occasions tacitly, on religious lines.
Delhi has to do a lot of explaining on this worst form of institutional religious radicalization. To bridge this gap, to correct this sin and to rectify this folly PDP allied with BJP but time and again the alliance has just exhibited lopsided behavior, where BJP prides about its brute majority in Delhi. If this supremacy had been on the basis of policy or better way of administration, it would have been understandable. But they just want to institutionalize and advance their religious agenda be it in the form of beef ban issue, separate colonies for Pandits, Sainik colonies, reservation for Hindus in the state, dilapidating Article 370 etc.
What would an ordinary and already insecure Kashmiri Muslim think when members of the government say heinous things like “Ramzade” and “Haramzade” (children of Ram or bast…) and the Prime Minister sleeps over it? What would the Kashmiri think when Ikhlaq is lynched for allegedly possessing beef meat and the Prime Minster maintains silence on it but conveys grief through his home minister about the incident of similar nature when it happened with Dalits in Gujarat. What would a Kashmir think when he is taunted by the same bigots that “during floods you begged for relief and help from army and now want to oust them”? ( The h elp t hat w as a ssisted during floods was estimated in rupees and was deducted from the relief package). The common Kashmiri is asking do you call Kashmiris or Kashmir an integral part of India.
I don’t hear the outpouring of same fascist comments by the members of the government when army helps Naxal stricken areas during the floods, and later when the same Naxals seek secession. This RSS agenda is going to weaken the country and alienate Kashmir ever further. The Akhand-Bharat map that hangs on the wall of, Rastriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) headquarters in Nagpur does not have the state of Jammu and Kashmir in it albeit it has Pakistan in it. There are people within this faction who out rightly say that this antipathy against Kashmiris is because Shayma Prasad Mukherjees death needs to be avenged. What should we call this hypocrisy, peace or religious radicalization? These questions need to be pondered upon. Over the course of history Delhi’s political policy towards Kashmir has unfortunately been saddening and step-motherly.
Kashmir does understand the beauty of democracy and the Indian assimilative nature underscored in the objective resolution adopted by the constituent assembly on 13 December 1946 apart from the importance of freedom, equality and pluralism it connoted. But it is time to practice it, it is time to accept Kashmir along with Kashmiris, it is time to trust them and give them what they want now so that secession and bloodbath could be avoided later.
Ousting of Sheikh Muhammad Abdullah and incarcerating him, the typical yes man behavior sought from Bakshi Ghulam Muhammad, emasculating Mir Qasim government, ousting of Farooq Abdullah, rigging the election of 1987 are some examples of how democracy has been crippled over and over again in Kashmir. And after all this what exactly gives Delhi a reason to suppose all this has been forgotten? The choice has always been between Delhi’s way and Delhi’s way. And yet again this time around the same behavior is been exhibited. Mehbooba Mufti who happens to be the democratically elected chief minister is by-passed in the meetings in Delhi circles regarding the law and order disruptions in Kashmir.
The interface between the state administration and Delhi has been and is the governor in the present situation. The elected government is sidelined (I don’t know how Mamta Banerjee would behave in same situation).How do you expect the democracy to flourish in Kashmir in such situations? What reason are you giving to the separatist section that democracy is the way when all that they see are instituted puppets? The ordinary Kashmiri is worried and feels insecure when the news agenda, evening after evening is being set by Arnab Goswami and likes of him and all that they do is rant hateful pseudo hyper-national monologue in every so called panel discussion. Kashmir does understand the beauty of democracy and the Indian assimilative nature underscored in the objective resolution adopted by the constituent assembly on 13 December 1946 and the importance of liberty, freedom, equality, secularism and pluralism it connoted.
But it is time to practice it, it is time to accept Kashmir along with Kashmiris, it is time to trust them and give them what they want now so that secession and bloodbath could be avoided later because Kashmiri also understands that he is not a toy to be claimed and counter claimed by countries for their agendas. Understanding the issues in a just manner will give the answers why Burhans are born time and again in Kashmir and the reason behind the social sanctity attributed to their cause.
(Author is pursuing MSc Economics in University of Edinburgh)
