“We need debate on Kashmir”, was the constant sloganeering raised by the Congress leaders in the house with most of the opposition parties adding to their chorus, the government was initially dilly-dallying but eventually agreed fully aware of the fact that this is the 4th debate on the same subject in this monsoon session of 20 days.
I did not follow the initial 3 debates, but this time I was a bit curious to find more about what they intend to speak and understand their line of approach. Well the session started and practically every political party wanted to make their point irrespective of their knowledge on the subject as complex as Kashmir.
The TMC MP made a point “Burhan wani is more dangerous dead than alive”, an MP from Amma’s party taking the discussion to a new level when he started singing a song on Kashmir, “Stopping the poison at source” was commented by the Samajwadi party, “Shoot the people but do not use pellet guns, they are worse than live bullets” by the one and only Sharad Yadav and then you have the commies saying “Unless you address the central question of the promises made to the people of Kashmir at the time of independence, this problem will not be solved,” adding further “I have been urging this government that this can only come through with an atmosphere of trust” well it was really strange since he did not elaborate the trust atmosphere thing and the exact un-kept promises to the people of Kashmir, another commie D. Raja said “AFSPA needs to be reviewed” and so on.
Practically if you try to dissect most of the comments made were subjective and generic in nature, nothing concrete that can add value and help in solving the actual problem. Off course one suggestion of all party meet was kind of a constructive idea.
Ghulam nabi Azad from the congress started the debate by complaining that the PM is not in the house and how earlier PM’s would only speak in the parliament and not from outside, somehow I failed to understand how would the message flow indifferently from wherever he speaks specially in this age of electronic media and internet.
Next he tried to explain the difference between “communalism” and “separatism” and how separatism or in plain words asking for separation from India is kind of less bad then being “communal”, the most allergic and also the favorite word for all the “sickular” parties. Then he stressed on “Kashmiriyat and insaniyat is not happening because of democracy but because of the pellet guns”, spoke in length about his experience as a CM, the problems he faced, the help he asked from center and all the goody goody work they did in decades of their ruling in J&K since independence. Further boasting the report card of his party he continued “There were a lot of confidence-building measures taken by UPA-1 and UPA-2, interlocutors, round table talks, etc.” and then finally concluding “I am not saying that everything is fine. Kashmir is a complex region”.
This is the funny part, that after doing so much for so many years you still failed and then still prompting the present govt. with the same set of failed ideas?
Azad being a popular face was covered exclusively by most of the media channels, next to speak was Shamsher Singh Manhas, Rajya sabha, BJP MP from Jammu, pretty unknown face not heard of and so most of the media shifted their focus back to their routine “fatafat” and “top20” kind of news.
I had to switch back to RSTV to listen him. He bluntly started by saying that Kashmir cannot be discussed minus Jammu and Ladakh. Jammu shares almost 500 kms of border with Pakistan and the problems of militancy on Kashmir region is almost the same in Jammu region too, but Jammu has fought back by helping the security forces and forming the Village defense committee (VDC). “Many youth in Jammu are also unemployed. Couldn’t they have picked up guns? This matter is all about nationalism and separatism” drawing the attention of the house to demarcate a clear difference between nationalism and a separatism. Frankly his speech was good, he spoke about the plight of all the security forces who lost their lives for the country and emphasized once again that only few handful of miscreants were problem creator in Kashmir, which was incidentally missing in the speeches of the congress and practically all the opposition parties.
The same day happen to listen to NDTV Barkha dutt exclusive with Omar Abdullah and to be real that would not be even called as an interview, it was more of a talk show or a chit-chat like the ones of “Coffee with karan”, I mean one could easily make out that this was a PR exercise for both. Throughout the show he repeated multiple times that “Kashmir is not an economical, but a political problem”, that puzzled me to core and I always thought we do have a democratically elected govt. and practically every party and the people did participate in the J&K elections.
So what is the “political problem” now? Omar Abdullah and his party has reiterated this many times in the past that the merger of J&K with India is not completed, but the anchor never dared to drill down deeper on both the questions.
Another word that we often keep listening is to provide a “healing touch” to the people of Kashmir. Opening up of AIIMS, IIT’s, IIM’s, offering 80,000 cr package for development, allocating 14.3 % of funds to J&K the highest to any Indian state, enormous and spontaneous help during Kashmir floods with personal supervision by the PM and the PM making multiple personal visits to J&K the max for any Indian state since he came to office, are not healing touch by the govt.??
Let’s talk specifics, J&K is an integral part of India (including PoK) and there can be no compromise on this, people who wish to talk on other grievances, the govt. is willing to listen on poverty, economics, employment, education, trade and practically everything. There are only handful of people motivated by the separatists who indulge in arson, stone pelting, anti-India slogans, hoisting Pakistani and ISIS flags and therefore their seems to be a controlled stern message to them by the usage of pellet guns that the govt. will not tolerate these activities.
Most of the political parties and certain sections of media should stop dancing to the tunes of the Pak controlled separatist’s and amplify the current problem. Large part of J&K namely with the regions of Jammu, Ladakh, large sections of Kashmir valley, people of dogra origin, bakarwals, pahadis are all doing fine with business as usual.
PM Modi with a dramatic change in strategy highlighted the issue of atrocities committed by the Pakistani forces on Kashmiri’s living in PoK and brutally bombing its own civilians in Baluchistan, is indeed a master stroke. This was an aggressive stand which changed the dynamics with both the Pakistanis and the opposition along with separatist’s were stunned and checkmated.