KASHMIR’S ETERNAL CRIES

After a lull - uneasy calm before a storm - for about one week violence has hit Jammu&Kashmir once again. If things are moving along these lines this State is bound to be on the boil in the coming days too with no end in sight.

 Six persons killed and hundreds of protestors injured in a violent clash with police and CRPF men demanding the fate of 17 year youth Farhan of Kreery who was alleged to have been caught by the police who is reported to be under police custody. It is reported that curfew has been climbed in the violence hit areas.

Violence extending upto several days on account of the alleged encounter deaths of five young men who were reportedly wooed by the security forces to the border areas.

 

No repercussions of a terror attack this, as per the reports emanating from media, this is an internal one and hence the penchant for targeting or finger pointing the handiworks of terror elements by the rulers at the State and Central level has to be taken by a fistful of salt. Squarely blaming alien elements always won’t carry much water and they are bound to delve deeper into the multiple aspects the recurring internal violence which are needed most.

 

Dr. Omar Abdullah, Chief Minister of Jammu&Kashmir and leader of National Conference by his repeated failures has proved beyond doubt his inability and inexperience in tackling the worsening law and order situations and it would be better if he is willing to step down and hand over the reins of the State to his father Dr. Farooq Abdullah who had already proved his mettle in dealing with the multiple issues plaguing the State. Dr. Farooq Abdullah is now a Central Minister, Minister of Non-Renewable sources of Energy. It would be an apt step if their portfolios are swapped, keeping the interest of the problematic State. An inexperienced youth Dr.Omar Abdullah is, his integrity no one doubts, but that is not enough to run a State where the law and order situation remains volatile.

 

 Add to these are the havoc and mayhem unleashed on the State by the hard-core militants sneaking into the State from across the border aided and abetted by the Pak army with the overt and covert help of Pak government.

 

But what we need to look into at this particular moment is the reasons behind the recurring internal violence.

 

In this context it would be better to turn our attention to the words of peace-loving political commentators and experts on the issue of Kashmir and a minority of State level political players.

 

The underlying reasons behind the despair, frustration and anger prevailing among the youth need to be taken care of. More employment opportunities, more developmental works, empowerment of young Muslim women, providing them food, education, health facilities, employment- all these steps would if implemented in letter and spirit would help to alleviate innumerable problems affecting those sections.

 

Unfortunately what we witness today in J&K is a plethora of political parties like PDP(Peoples’ Democratic Party) headed by Mufti Mohammed Sayeed and Mehbooba Mufti, BJP(Bharathiya Janata Party) headed by Nitin Gadkari, NC(National Conference) headed by Farooq Abdullah and Omar Abdullah, INC (Indian National Congress) headed by Sonia Gandhi- all pulling in different directions. In the perpetual race for scoring points, what they always tend to forget are the basic problems of the citizens who remain always peace-loving. Patience has its limits, they can’t remain eternally patient and peace-loving on witnessing their own kith and kin being gunned down by the law-enforcers and terming such incidents fake encounters pushing them to live in perpetual fear and uncertainty and political parties jumping to the arena in the guise of saviours actually to cashing in on the situation, put it simply, to fish in troubled waters, shedding crocodile tears.

Otherwise why can’t they as CPI(M) MLA Yusuf Tarigami asks, sit across a table in an atmosphere of cordiality and deliberate upon the steps to tackle the various issues social and political and evolve a common strategy. Being the sole MLA of a Communist Party his words have no takers hence nothing positive is likely to emerge.

 

Peoples’ Democratic Party is always at loggerheads with National Conference, Indian National Congress and Bharathiya Janata Party and equations are likely to change depending upon the circumstances. For instance Congress and PDP become allies occasionally, National Conference and Indian National Congress become allies as of now, leaving PDP in the lurch, in politics equations always do not remain the same. ‘Marriage of convenience’ in other words. Equations or no equations what all political parties need to adhere to is the welfare of the people. Suppression always leads to more suppressions and a chain of suppressions follows.

 

Political mindset should have to change for the better, mud-slinging, race for one-upmanship should have to be avoided at any cost.

 

Each moment the State falls into internal turmoil sitting comfortably in Delhi and pointing accusing finger at any of the militant unit in the neighbouring country does not wash. Such finger pointing will have not much takers always.