For one reason or other, my customary two or three visits to the Kashmir valley annually, for over 55 years, may have become a distant memory recently, but it no way means that I have lost touch with my home base. It’s just that it does not feel as good as it used ……… until not very long ago.
The wrench as it were, came on my last visit when I set out from my hotel room in Srinagar for the famed Regal Chowk , for the Mir Paan House , to be precise. The owner and I had barely exchanged greetings when a voice thundered from across the main street , some meters away ” Hey Kotrusaab, Namaskar”. No tables for it’s high decibels than anything else, the voice from across the street made some 100 eyes turn towards me probably wanting to know who this namaskar was for.
The fact is that the man who greeted me so loudly was only a distant acquaintance, his booming Hi, Hello, only seemed to mark me out as a Kashmiri Pandit, a stranger and probably only the only Pandit within a two square mile area.
Mark you, this is not how Kashmiris greet each other . Our greetings are more intimate and personal. In the instant case, the effort was only to make me the focus of attention, a creature belonging to an engendered species, an alien perhaps. The hailer in fact never crossed the road to meet me, say with a more intimate handshake or even a hug. He waved on from where he was and melted away, in the crowd.
The tidings of that visit, my last visit had been somewhat negative. My journalist colleagues were still sorting out the State polls and the friend I later stayed with had found his peace at the Srinagar Gold Club where he would spend the whole day burning out his calories, even as he imbibed fresh ones .
Things may appear to have changed for the better lately, but that’s on the surface., he told me over the phone the other day. ” Don’t be misled by the number of tourists that visited the Valley last year or the number of pilgrims that came to the Amarnath cave . Outwardly, everyone tells you “things haven’t been as well as they are now.; the first time in 20 years” To know better, you just have to scratch the surface.
The separatists venom so assiduously fed by the types of Syed Ali Shah Geelani and the other Hurriyat led by the “moderate Umar Farouq” becomes evident the moment you offer a listening ear .The average rural Kashmiri , far too busy making ends meet , will tell you that he has no use for the terrorists or the Talibanese, unlike his urban cousin who has his own take on such matters .
Yes, they are scared when you talk of the Pakistani Taliban killing their own kin by the score each passing day but obviously believe they are too far away . The more die hard will say that they are prepared to die at the hands of the Taliban or the Lashkar – e- Toiba but not the Indian Army . Why would he like to die when he has a full life ahead of him, and who knows, he may have an opportunity to better his lot? “Yes, true,I am waiting for that to happen………. like the others.” But, he is not sure that the political dispensation at Srinagar is interested in the genuine upliftment of the people. ” Look, how are they sacrificing the Panches and the Sarpanches , even after the overwhelming support they got from the rural bases?” some counter.
But this kind of argument is an old hat if you had been a regular visitor. The basic truth is the “lack of trust” at the local and as much as at the national level. Thus you may find lawyers or their associations refusing to take up certain cases; while some would volunteer on a pro bono basis , few are willing to argue on behalf of the administration / Government cases in which ordinary locals are involved.
I remember of cases where the Advocate General, appointed by the State Government , was very reluctant to take up what should normally have been his call in a case before the Kashmir High Court ; as a face saver, the Deputy Advocate General, a Kashmiri Hindu from Jammu argued the case in the High Court . The Bar Association in Srinagar is among the frontal organisations in deciding what’s on and what’s not.
On the record, one has heard any number of times of multi-crore rehabilitation projects for Kashmiri Pandits , some named after the Prime Minister ; some flats have been built in places like Badgam and Mattan , near Anantnag , but one is not sure how many of them have been allotted to displaced Hindus nor am I able to get confirmation about how many of them continue to be occupied. And yet, if you were to ask any political outfit in the Valley , the separatists included , they would be the first to endorse the rehabilitation of the Pandits and yet do nothing to make it possible.
On the other hand, they impose conditions such as rehabilitating the displaced Pandits in the localities from which they were forced out in 1990 which is an impossibility . Most of these properties were burned down or the original owners were forced to sell-out the abandoned shells at nominal prices. The Government obviously pleads helplessness in cases where the buyer and seller strike private deals . If the Government has chosen to give a Nelson’s eye to such unfair dealings , how do you blame the separatists when they insist on rehabilitation of Pandits in their original localities?
Lest you get away with the impression that large sections of the Muslim population of the State are left untouched by the depredation of the militant separatists and their encounters with the security forces including the State Police , there are instances galore of the Muslim population being subjected to a terror of different sorts . Take the case of three Srinagar girls who have a rock band of their own , just the three of them. Sure enough, the fundamentalists, taking the social-media route, struck back, demanding they be barred from performing . Nobody explained why ?
Why cant a girls band play in girl’s schools or colleges or even at exclusive women’s functions in the Valley ? This is the same mindset that gives rise to despicable incidents like the attempted murder of MalalaYusufzai in Swat in Pakistan’s Northwestern territory. Malala has been recovering in a Birmingham hospital in Britain after suffering bullet holes in her head for her offence; girl’s right to education.
A recovered Malala the other day said outside her hospital that every girl has a right to education, a thought that has been appreciated universally and as a consequence, her name has been recommended for the Nobel Peace Prize . Kashmiri girls , I dare say, at the risk of being a racist, are much better equipped than Pakistani girls when it comes to education. Many Kashmiri girls have distinguished themselves in the realm of academics .Which again, should convince the Kashmiri Muslim fundamentalists of the futility of trying to draw boundaries beyond which the Kashmiri girls cannot look.
If I have digressed from where I have started with, there was some inevitability of this happening .Largely because there is something different to the Kashmiri identity. If you pause to look at my grouse at the beginning, I am sure you will discern a feeling of deep concern on my part as to why anyone should question my right to being a good Kashmiri than, say a separatist Kashmiri living in Kashmir . My advice to all such separatists would be that if you are not happy with your present lot , please go wherever else you find peace. Leave Kashmir alone.
The Geelanis and the Umar Farouq of the two Hurriyats will, of course, not accept the suggestions. They are already having the best of both worlds. Geelani, having served several terms as a member of the Kashmiri Legislative Assembly and sworn to “defend” and “protect” the Indian and the State Constitution is surrounded by plenty to live in the comfort of his Srinagar mansion. And he can still be the Pakistani pro-consul and continue to deliver telephonic addresses to Pakistani crowds from Delhi, unburden himself of his anti-India poison on which he has thrived, literally and metaphorically for over eight decades .
Maulvi Farouq , the moderate Hurriyat Chief , too, has no need to worry about his future. He can continue his customary pilgrimages to Pakistan to woo the extremists of the LET and the Mujahideen, meet the leaders of that country and be feted as a long lost brother. The two separatist leaders need not fear for their lives in the valley , protected as they are by State security . I am only worried at the kind of fate that would await them if they were to visit Pakistan’s north western badlands inhabited by the Taliban, the Afghan and Pakistani varieties .
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