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Jammu and Kashmir situation – Where do we go from here? | The problem in Kashmir was not created in a day and, it will not go away in a day. Neither are there any easy solutions
or prescriptions. Just because there is a lull in agitations, should not let anyone,
especially the North Block mandarins, imagine that the issue stands resolved,
at least for this year? There is talk about another economic package, about a
political package, the Prime Minister calling for an all party meeting and so
on. This all sounds bizarre. It just shows how out of sync are both the State
and Central governments with the ground situation, despite the entire paraphernalia
of the state machinery being at their disposal. Weren’t the screams of the agitators
loud enough for the governments to hear? Were they asking for an economic package?
Or a political package? Or prescriptions from discredited politicians? While the
slogans were furiously anti-India and of ‘Azaadi’, what provoked them were pent
up emotions, deep-seated hurt, traumatized childhoods and youth, and above all,
the courage to pick up and throw a stone at a soldier pointing a gun at them.
No economic or political package can address such an emotional outburst; no meeting
of traditional politicians can come up with any prescriptions for this kind of
outrage. Moreover, when an all-party meeting is devoid of major components, any
prescription is bound to fall flat. The pent up emotional outburst has to be met
with compassion and sensitivity. If anything, what is required is an emotional
package, a package that would allow the agitators to give vent to their grief
and frustration, their anger and even their hatred; a package that will treat
them with respect, restore their dignity and try and heal the accumulated humiliations,
all of which have now coalesced and congealed and become a rock. That rock has
to be melted, gradually, and with a sequenced approach. The worst thing the government
can do is to try and buy the pent-up outrage through yet another economic package.
This is also not the time for solutions or any political package. Any political
offer or concession, short of total withdrawal, would be rejected out of hand.
This is the time for healing. Healing, by itself, will not be a solution, but
it will be a beginning. The need of the hour is for India to connect with Kashmiris,
emotionally connect with them. To listen to their woes, to their horror stories,
to the repeated humiliations, to the assault on their dignity day after day, to
life under constant curfew, to life under the constant threat that their loved
ones will not return in the evening when they leave home in the morning. Just
listen. Don’t offer any prescriptions, any solutions. Just listen and bond with
their sorrow and grief. Both the Congress and the BJP have large student/youth
wings, as does the Left. How about several delegations from the student/youth
wings of all the parties visiting Kashmir and spending time with Gen Next, in
their homes, just listening to them? How about the women’s organizations of various
political parties doing likewise? How about ordinary housewives from even Jammu
and other parts of India spending time with the distraught women of Kashmir ?
How about the Prime Minister’s wife leading one such delegation? Or Mrs. Advani?
Or both, jointly? Just to understand why the women in Kashmir could pick up a
stone and hurl it at the security forces. Just to hear them. How about the electronic
media, instead of just reporting the violence, organize programmes to listen to
what Gen Next has to say. Indian democracy is big enough and strong enough to
absorb the frustrations and even the venom that will be spilled out. How about
Bollywood taking the lead and sending a group of actors to interact with Gen Next?
Mahesh Bhatt? Priety Zinta? Shahrukh Khan? The Big B himself? How about a Lata
Mangeshkar concert in the heart of Srinagar where she would sing ‘ Aye mere watan
ke logo’? Many other options could be added to the above list. The crucial thing
at this stage is to connect emotionally with Kashmiris. Solutions and packages
can wait. One obvious question that arises is of security. How will the security
of such groups be ensured? What if some harm comes to any group? Who will be responsible?
The ordinary people of Kashmir made a leap of faith when they voted in large numbers
to make the elections a success for India’s democracy. They put their security
concerns behind them. Can India and Indians make a similar leap of faith and trust
the Kashmiris? Let the Kashmiris take responsibility for the safety and security
of any group that comes to talk to them. Yes, there may be a few incidents, provoked
by Pakistani agents under orders to ensure that the emotional connection does
not take place. There will be bad eggs, but the Kashmiri will never spurn a genuine
hand of friendship or treat it with violence. While the emotional package is the
immediate need of the hour, for the medium term the government needs to put in
place an educational package. Not formal education, but educating the people of
Kashmir about the reality. Take for example Azaad Kashmir. Pakistan has sold the
idea that Azaad Kashmir is really azaad i.e. independent. Hence, the ordinary
Kashmiri, shouting azaadi slogans thinks that he is going to be independent like
Azaad Kashmir. 62 years on, the Government of India has not even tried to expose
the myth that Azad Kashmir is a misnomer and that it is not only not independent,
it does not even enjoy the powers of other provinces of Pakistan let alone the
autonomy enjoyed by Jammu and Kashmir. That it is not the Prime Minister of Azaad
Kashmir, but the Prime Minister of Pakistan who legally calls the shots through
the Azaad Jammu and Kashmir Council. Here are two trick questions for government
officials. Can the Prime Minister of Azaad Kashmir transfer a tehsildar? Or, does
a Kashmiri even figure in the census of Pakistan ? Watch this space for the answers!
Take another example. How many know that it was Pakistan who had objected to the
third option in the UN Resolutions? It was due to Pak objections that the plebiscite
options were limited to accession to either India or Pakistan . And yet, Pakistan
is seen as championing the cause of Kashmiri independence today and India is on
the back foot. Has the Indian government fully exposed the state of the people
in Azaad Jammu and Kashmir or in Gilgit Baltistan? Should not Indian Kashmiris
be exposed to what those hapless people have to say about Pakistan ? Would they
then still want an azaadi that means subservience to Pakistan ? The list could
be multiplied many times over. But the moot point is that despite the vast resource
of the Home and the Information and Broadcasting ministries, at best, paltry efforts
have been made to educate the Kashmiri people about the reality of Pakistan .
India has been so defensive about its position in Kashmir that it has always been
on the back foot. Even now, it would not be too late to start a sophisticated
programme that reaches out to the masses and informs them about the reality. In
this day of the electronic media, developing smart programmes should not be difficult.
To conclude, for the last 60 years Indian policy-makers have thought and acted
in terms of a coercion-package paradigm. The disastrous results are visible for
all to see. The time has come to think of out of the box and embark on a new track.
Let us in India reciprocate the Kashmiri leap of faith and try and heal the wounds
of the Kashmiris. Let the emotional package be the first step in the long road
that both India and Kashmir will need to travel together. It will only be the
first step and not a ‘solution’ but perhaps it will be the most important step.
It must be supplemented by educating the Kashmiri people about the reality of
Pakistan and the situation of people in Azaad Jammu and Kashmir and Gilgit Baltistan.
Once such groundwork has been successfully implemented and there is an emotional
connect, attention could be turned towards ‘packages’ of other kinds. Perhaps
then, both India and Kashmir will be able to realize the shared dream of “If there
is paradise on earth, it is this, it is this, it is this.”
(The views expressed
in the above article are the author’s). |
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