|
How we keep losing Kashmir?
Sansardeep S.
Wanjara
 Thanks
to the progress in the field of communication, it has become so easy
to lose track. Events and happenings move at such speed that most of
us barely have time to jump from Obama’s address to Muslim world to
Pakistan fighting the Al Qaeda to Akali Dal becoming a mirror image
of saffron BJP to anger exploding on the streets of Kashmir to a new
wave of protests in Iran. This is a situation that most suits the
rulers, particularly the variety that thrives on suppression of
voices of self-aspirations and trouncing of minority concerns.
Something similar
is happening in Kashmir. Just as the Indian nation state in the
1980s and early 1990s repeatedly tried to ensure that Punjab is
viewed through the prism of terrorism across
India,
now Kashmir is projected as a territory where all terrorism emanates
actually at the command of Pakistani masters.
No wonder, the
print as well as the electronic media have failed in their duty in
the last few weeks to keep a consistent focus on the Valley where
Indian security forces are just not stopping their shameless routine
of repression, firing, killings and where rape has been added as a
new weapon. For more than a month now, the Valley is on fire, but
after the initial burst of reporting, the mainstream media in India
has become apathetic to the news.
 “After
all, for how many days can a newspaper keep publishing pictures of
army men taking positions or lobbing tear gas shells?” a journalist
friend asked me. Well, as long as there are people on the streets
ready to take a bullet in the chest if that becomes necessary to
demand that their women must not fall victims of rape by security
personnel.
Harassment of local
women has been a continuing story, be it the
Punjab of 1980s, the North East or
Kashmir. But
finally, the Kashmiris have decided to take it no more. I have my
doubts about the Kashmirs’ capacity to put an end to it, not because
I doubt their will to keep standing and throwing a stone at
LMG-wielding CRPF jawans to make a point but because I have seen an
entire nation unmoved even when women from the North East protested
against a series of rape incidents and Armed Forces Special Powers
Act by stripping in public.
|
“After all, for how many days can a newspaper keep publishing
pictures of army men taking positions or lobbing tear gas
shells?” a journalist friend asked me. Well, as long as there
are people on the streets ready to take a bullet in the chest if
that becomes necessary to demand that their women must not fall
victims of rape by security personnel. |
|
India’s media,
except for a few honorable exceptions, failed humanity, and did not
notice it. Not only Shopian had to explode but the unrest was to
spread to Sopore, Bijbehara and Pulwama, and gain momentum for the
issue to even come to the front pages for a brief period.
Now the women are
buried, the High Court has even talked of exhuming the bodies and a
Commission has found that all allegations of Kashmiri leaders were
indeed correct. But there is a move to put a lid on the entire
affair by suspending a couple of cops and ordering some departmental
action.
What about the root
cause?
And what about the
criminal apathy of a regime that tried to sweep the crime under a
carpet? It is time India started demilitarizing the Valley. On his
blog, J-K CM Omar Abdullah has written: “Omar Abdullah has had it
with the security forces.” So nice. Now stand up and say it, loud
and clear, and every single day, from every forum, and every
rooftop. Till you see that the people believe you enough to go back
home assured that their women will be safe and that the patented
Indian construct of killing young men in fake encounters ends.
 And
ask your father to say it in Parliament. It is good to see Home
Minister P Chidambaram talking about handing over law and order to
the Jammu and Kashmir
police, and CM planning to send the CRPF back. But what is important
is to focus on the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA).
Rarely has a law
been so hated. Indian media is good at drumming up a din about voter
turnout hitting 63 per cent to muffle voices of the true leaders of
the people.
 Struck by the
vehemence of the protests, Omar has now said his government would
not give license for unwarranted use of force. The remarks followed
a day after a youth died last Wednesday of the injuries he suffered
in police firing. People are continuing to defy the curfew and CRPF
men haven’t stopped firing tear-gas shells and rubber pellets into
the mobs.
On Monday, Omar
Abdullah met Prime Minister Mamohan Singh and Chidambaram and in the
presence of India’s National Security Advisor M K Narayanan demanded
that the CRPF be replaced. He also briefed them about the security
situation in the state and the frequent law and order problem
arising out of agitations.
The AFSPA was
introduced in July 1990, a time that does not even remotely resemble
the present situation in the Valley.
(Sansardeep S.
Wanjara regularly tracks Kashmir affairs.)
8
July 2009
|
Read Also