Shiban Khaibri
Should our money paid through direct and indirect taxes, be used to bear the cost of security of and other benefits to those of our political leaders who rant anti India tirade, is a vital question . It gains importance on two counts. One – the end use of out Tax payers’ money in so far as spending on those who do not treat this country as their own or respect its territorial integrity and the other one – relating to the unlimited and perhaps unquestionable discretionary powers of the government in spending part of its revenue on providing security cover and doling out other benefits to them.
Is it a fact that the Central Government as also the State Government, as on date, do not come out with detailed information on this subject when most of us who regularly and unhesitatingly and even under legal obligation, pay our taxes with an implied understanding of never giving our acquiesce to the Government or any of its agencies to use some part of that money to protect, comfort and treat those of the political leaders who spew misinformation and hatred to the extent of sedition against the sovereignty and territorial integrity of our country. However, on April 1, 2015 , State Government had disclosed the fact in the Assembly that more than Rs.506.75 crores were spent on the security cover alone on political activists including the Hurriyat leaders for five years Those who incite mobs to violence and hurling stones on our security forces with intent to harm them physically are being given security from these very security forces , the cost of which is borne by the general public. It is also learnt that the Government does not look frugal in its policy towards footing expenses of Kashmir separatist leaders right from air travels to stay in costly hotels to providing professional top medical care which ultimately are borne out by Indian tax payers. It is well known that only because of peculiar political scenario built up over decades right from 1953 in this state, the state government does not augment its revenues by extending the tax base and is largely dependent on the central funds out of which all these expenses are met. The whooping developmental funds provided by the Central Government plus immense infrastructural development along with the ones in the pipe line have resulted in this state marching ahead economically, the overall position of the living standards and per capita income and consumption are steadily growing as compared to other states. Seeing all this and verifying thoroughly as in today’s world, nothing can be hidden or manipulated , then comparing it with the apathetic conditions of PoK and other parts of Pakistan, the separatist leaders still want seceding of the state from India on narrow religious grounds .
It is a travesty, as is believed, that the funds spent on “Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan” in the state is less than the expenses incurred on providing all comforts to a handful of these anti India and separatist leaders. Even confinements after “arrests” of top leadership mean a VIP treatment. These separatist leaders were largely responsible for , making the ground work “smooth ” for hounding out of the ethnic minority community of Kashmiri Pandits from their hearths and homes who are perpetually denied their own Kashmir all these 27 long years of their exile again by the mechanizations of these very separatist leaders. Still there is no cumulative retributive ill will or mass hatred by the majority Indians towards these traitor leaders which speaks of the tremendous levels of tolerance inherited and passed on religiously from generations to generations in this country .
Being quite comfortable on all personal and domestic fronts but giving frequent protest and Hartal calls for days together in the valley, these leaders are thus throwing economic and commercial activities out of gear which remotely and hardly affects them or their life style not even in the least as it does to the ordinary general people like petty shopkeepers, transporters, small business and services sector, daily wage earning labourers and the like. The immense harm done to young students due to closures of their learning places, many of which were targeted by arsonists at the behest of such separatist leaders on the dictates from across the border, is well known. How many of them speak pro- Pakistan tone and language and meet that country’s envoys on our soil to coordinate measures to foment pressures, pulls and trouble for this country, is well known.
Agreed, there is no parallel to the vast liberal and wide openness of the characteristics of our democracy wherein we, not only tolerate dissent but give credence to it and the government must come forward to save lives of opponents in case they have threat perceptions but where have we to draw a line, is the point at issue? The ones who represent the neighbouring rogue country believing in hate mongering and causing one thousand cuts to this country , the ones who chant “Kashmir will go to Pakistan”, the ones who openly declare the savior Indian army as occupier or occupational forces and never condemn attacks on and casualties to the defending savior army personnel at the hands of Jehadi terrorists, cannot be bracketed in the list of tolerable political dissent but as people who are waging war against the state through proxy if not overtly and openly. They deserve prison and not VIP confinements in the picturesque Cheshmashahi surroundings.
Agreed, the practice is embedded deep having taken the form of precedence over nearly seven decades and it won’t be that easy to reverse it in one go by the current dispensation but some big start has to be made. Otherwise also, it is both the question of proprietary and conscience on the part of the beneficiary leaders to refuse any such “kindness” from the country they are fighting with, to “liberate” an inalienable part from it. Or has “accepting” whether through domestic channels in the form under reference or from the sources unearthed recently by the NIA, making no difference to them so far as morality, ethics, principles, accountability and expected affinity are concerned.
Same is true of those Kashmir centric leaders who, though swearing upon the constitution of India and “winning” elections , whose three generations having ruled this state, should violate the institutions created by the same constitution and openly tear apart the unanimously passed resolutions by the highest seat of democracy of the country.
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