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Walk the Peace Talk
Jagmohan Singh
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Can peace
initiatives win the battle for selfdetermination argues the
author in this open letter to Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front
leader, Yasin Malik after meeting him and watching the
documentary Journey to Freedom. Jagmohan Singh is cynical about
success as the international community does not responding
adequately. |
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Dear Yasin Malik
Aadab
 Last
week, it was a pleasant opportunity to interact with you at the
quiet environs of the Indian Social Institute at
Delhi to watch
the documentary Safri-e-Azadi (Journey for Freedom) and
photographs of your 114-day on-foot tour of the length and breadth
of
Kashmir.
I keenly watched
the movie and saw the photographs in the exhibition. I also
observed that you are a quiet man. You intermingled with people but
were a man of few words. The years of solitary confinement in
prison and a one year detention in a lunatic asylum in
Agra may have
brought about this characteristic in you. I am keen to speak to
your mother sometimes to learn more about your childhood. My hunch
is that you must have been an ebullient child forcing your way
through things. The diligent manner in which you are espousing the
cause of Kashmir is commendable.
I write this
open letter to you to share my thoughts with you on the subject of
Peaceful Conflict Resolution in
South Asia.
It is
interesting to see that the struggles in
Punjab, Kashmir
and North-east are gradually becoming peaceful and democratic. Key
players in the insurgency movement have come over ground and are now
part of the process seeking a peaceful solution to the question of
rights in respective areas.
 I
would like to acclaim you for your diligence to walk through 7,000
villages all over the state, listen to peoples’ woes and provide
them with hope, succour and support. What you said in your brief
talk while introducing the documentary is important, ‘the people of
the world need to see the participation of women in the meetings
that you held in various regions’. When womenfolk turn out on the
streets for seeking rights or redress of wrongs, it is time for the
repressive nations to change their tactics. Alas, it would not be
so in case of
India. As we
are witnessing, though the Kashmiri guns are silent, the Indian
Armed Forces continue their offensive, violating human rights with
impunity.
It was
remarkable to see in the documentary and at the exhibition,
volunteers and leaders from all walks of life –Hindus, Sikhs, trade
union leaders, and other community leaders participate shoulder to
shoulder with you. The message was clear though the documentary and
the exhibition could have been carefully edited and better
organized. The graphic designer in me urges me to request you to
adopt a more slick and professional approach while using this
medium.
In your speech
at the India Today conclave held recently, you have said that the
time for
Kashmir
is now. Tomorrow may be too late. Sadly, no one in
India is
listening. Your journey of peace did not find much mention in the
mainstream media even though you came to Delhi to tell the world
about it.
All of this and
the current events in
Tibet made me
think about the role of peaceful methods in conflict resolution. I
would like to share with you the thoughts that came gushing to my
mind while I was watching the scenes from Kashmir in the august
company of octogenarian leader P. N. Dhar, Justice Rajinder Sachhar,
Gandhian Nirmala Devi, India TV host Rajat Sharma, and many new
civil rights activists whose names I do not know.
 Do
the media in
India react to
any peace initiative? Any where? Think about it. The guns went
silent in Punjab and most embassies that had set up Punjab desks,
wound it. All religious and political parties of Punjab protested
the blasphemy in the movie, Jo Bole So Nihal for weeks
together. The state simply ignored it. While the peaceful
protests were on, there was a violent incident in a cinema hall
showing the movie. The next day, the movie was out of cinema halls
all over the country.
The guns are
silent in Kashmir, yet inspite of your best efforts, hardly any
people from the diplomatic corps of Delhi was present to listen to
you. Chanu Sharmila is on fast for the last six years in Manipur.
Does any body in the media even report about her health conditions
and the reasons why she is on fast? The Dalai Lama is peace
incarnate, but had his peaceful Buddhist followers not resorted to
resistance and offensive in Lhasa, would the world have taken
notice? As far as the Tibetan movement is concerned, since the last
six decades, it has come into public purview, whenever there has
been an uprising, as in 1959, in 1972 and now in 2008. Had there
been no Bhagat Singh, would any one have listened to Mohandas
Karamchand Gandhi?
Am I suggesting
relinquishing peace efforts? Far from it. The world is becoming
increasingly difficult for ethnic nationalities seeking their basic
rights. Countries have crossed the boundaries of respect for human
rights and humanitarian considerations. Everything is subject to
the geo-political interests of countries and the growing market
economy needs. Annual reports of Human Rights Watch, the Amnesty
International and Special Rapporteurs of UN bodies are always
rubbished by the perpetrators of crimes against humanity and their
credentials questioned with the vast majority digesting whatever is
thrown at them.
 On
March 3, in the opening session of the United Nations Human Rights
Council meet in Geneva, UN Secretary-General, Ban-Ki-moon said, “No
country, however powerful, should escape scrutiny of its record,
commitments and actions on human rights.” He further said that it
was imperative to meet the high expectations of the international
community which included the application of human rights values
without favour, without selectivity, without being impacted by any
political machinations around the world.” If the Secretary General
of the United Nations, Ban-ki-Moon had to say that the UN Human
Rights Council needs to become more proactive, the writing is on the
wall that even the United Nations has been unable to tame
governments which are gross abusers of human rights. Either through
the aegis of the Unrepresented Nations and Peoples’ Organisation or
through any other new forum, we need to seek a statement from the UN
Secretary General about respect for the right to self-determination
in India.
Another
significant point that you made in your speech at the conclave
should be enlightening for all nationalistic movements. You have
pointed out that the growing youthful population in South Asia may
be seen as an opportunity and a challenge. India and the world
should be wary of “deferring a conflict like the Kashmir Dispute to
increasingly younger populations in a region plagued by inequity,
intolerance, terrorism, poverty and disease.”
So what do we
do? What should you do after a 114 day tour of your homeland? I
guess there are no easy answers. The power of the governments and
even sections of civil society to “engage and exhaust” –as you
rightly put it is tremendous. Still, what you stated at the India
Today conclave is timely, “we must ensure that the world’s conflicts
are effectively and sincerely resolved through serious and inclusive
negotiation processes and creative problem-solving.”
Notwithstanding what India and Pakistan say to each other, the right
of the people of Kashmir to themselves determine their destiny is
inalienable.
 Perhaps
the answer lies in what you have sought. “We must provide positive
and creative alternatives to the path of violence and must ensure a
global culture of non-violence and tolerance of dissent and that we
don’t need to wait any longer before trying to do so.”
To develop the
culture of non-violence is not an easy task. William Golding in
Lord of the Flies and George Orwell in Animal Farm tell us that the
intrinsic tendencies of man to dominate cannot be wished away. Yet,
as you say, hope should not be lost. With the world increasingly
answering only to other options, I pray that the world responds to
peace than to war.
With best wishes
and prayers.
Jagmohan Singh
Jagmohan Singh
is a civil rights activist and commentator based in Ludhiana. He may
be contacted at
jsbigideas@gmail.com
2
April
2008
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