Suman K Sharma
At the outset I must say that I don’t speak for anyone else but myself. I claim the right to do so because I hail from the state and my family has suffered in 1947 as much on account of the evil designs of Pakistan, as any tear-shedding and breast-beating pro-militant/’Azadi’-seeking Kashmiri from the Valley. I feel that the Valley of Kashmir is and will remain a part of India as are Kanpur or the backwaters of Kerala.
What is this noise about ‘Azadi’ being made by the likes of Syed Ali Shah Geelani, Mirwais Umar Farooq, Er Rashid, Asia Andrabi and Yasin Malik? Look us at their credentials. The octogenarian Mr Geelani’s offspring is enjoying the best of life in India; the self-righteous Mirwais is essentially a hereditary preacher; Er Rashid, the vociferous self-proclaimed fighter of the Kashmiri ’cause’, has pledged allegiance to the Constitution as an MLA and yet he takes pride to disown Indian polity; Mrs Andrabi’s older son, Mohammed bin Qasim is in Malaysia and Mr Yasin Malik, by his own word is a terrorist-turned-Gandhian. Ironically, such ungrateful separatists in Kashmir are given personal protection at the expense of the state exchequer.
These are the persons (I refrain from giving any of them the honorific of ‘leader’) who have raised a ruckus about ‘self-determination’, which decoded means India conducting a plebiscite as to whether the people of J&K want to be a sovereign state, or be a part of Pakistan or maintain a status quo. And what is the raison d’etre for this outcry? To find that we will have to go back to the dawn of Independence in the concluding years 1940s when the evil genius, the founder of Pakistan, Mohammed Ali Jinnah sent invaders across the border to annex the territories of J&K. In the war that ensued, one-third of the state was occupied by Pakistan, while the rest remained with India. The matter was raised with the UN. The UN, according to BBC, passed three resolutions in 1949, on the recommendations of Pakistan and UN Commission in India, which said that ‘a plebiscite should be held to determine the future allegiance of the entire state.’ The following year, 1950, an election was held in J&K determining the will of the people. Pakistan, however, desisted from withdrawing its Army from PoK. In the circumstances, the Government of India felt that there was no need to hold a plebiscite in the state, since, according to BBC, ‘firstly because the Pakistani forces have not been withdrawn and secondly because elections affirming the state’s status as part of India had been held.
Okay, the separatists might not feel bound by such legalities. But how can they claim the right to represent the entire state? Do Kashmiri Pandits support them? A heartless joke. The pro-Azadi zealots of the Valley, with their systematic antics of hegemony and outright terror, overwhelmed Kashmiri Pandits to such an extent that the poor souls had to leave home-steads en-masse. But do the Laddakhis go with them? Nope. And the Dogras from Jammu? The Dogras give two hoots about the separatists and what they stand for. Now ask any of the inciters of the mobs of the terrorist-infested four or five districts of Kashmir. Would they be prepared to have the state divided among their blood-thirsty supporters and the nay-sayers. No, not by any means. They want that the entire J&K should be theirs – self-determination of others be damned! So much for the legitimacy of the alleged movement for self-determination! And if the separatists still insist on playing on their unstrung banjo, let them first go on their knees to their patrons and pay-masters in Pakistan and China to beseech them to reunite the state as it existed under the Dogra rule. Only then may India consider the advisability of going through the rigmarole.
Unfortunately, at the end of the day, the rabble-rousers are not prepared to listen to the voice of reason. Why would they? They have their big pies at stake. By false propaganda and paltry inducements, they will continue to incite innocent youth to go the way of violence.
Which is sad. I can vouch on the strength of personal experience that Muslims in the Valley are not terrorists. On the contrary, they display the finest qualities of Kashmiriyat. The turmoil in the paradise-on-earth is perpetuated by egotistical rabble-rousers, with the active support of Pakistan (and CM Ms Mufti has said, China), for personal gain and self-importance. We, therefore, owe it to the flower of the youth in the Valley that no self-seeking war-monger sends them as enemies of the nation to confront our security forces, which have the mandate to put down violence with a heavy hand. Those who wage a war against the nation-state must face the consequences.
One way to overcome this Catch-22 situation is to deny the anti-national elements any opportunity to multiply and show the whole world for what they really are. Such people thrive on publicity. They upload on the social media misleading video clippings along with provocative comments. An instance in the context is the fb series coming under the tag ‘A Video You May Like’. More often than not, it carries clips glorifying stone-pelters and hard-core terrorists. The craftier among the anti-national elements have taken to uploading videos of young Kashmiri women churning out woeful tales of state oppression and alienation from the mainland. Can’t we pay the propagandists in their own coin and show the positive side of the story of how the state and the Union governments are endeavouring to create new opportunities for the youth to join the mainstream for the rewarding task of nation-building? Or, at the least, ‘unfriend’ those who post hate-messages on fb and other electronic platforms? Points to ponder.
feedbackexcelsior@gmail.com
Trending Now
E-Paper
Follow our WhatsApp channel