The state of Jammu and Kashmir plunged into another crisis, this time over the nativity certificates being granted to the Hindu refugees from West Pakistan who had settled in Kashmir because of the 1947 partition and continued to live in the State but were not granted State citizenship by the successive State Governments. The separatists have been protesting for almost one week over this move calling it a violation of Article 370 of the Constitution and an attempt to alter the ‘demography’ of the valley. Unsurprisingly yet unfortunately the Opposition parties have rallied along the separatists. The mainstream Media has been too unabashed to condemn the worst kind of communal politics and manifestation of religious extremism.
The incident is not only a display of Islamic extremism by an anti-National faction of political parties and secessionists but goes on to explain the very roots of Kashmir turmoil which will be discussed in this Article followed by an attempt to expose the hypocrisy of the news traders and the pseudo liberals who have often hailed the separatists as the forerunners of a freedom movement against illegitimate and forcible occupation of the valley by India. The Article also goes into the question of alteration in Kashmir’s demography.
Kashmir: A victim of religious extremism:
This incident explains that the Kashmir turmoil is by no stretch of imagination a result of forcible occupation and military excesses as the separatists and their agents such as the Abdullahs would like you to believe but the consequence of religious intolerance towards other communities by the majority community of the valley. The unprovoked protests by the separatists reiterate the narrative set during the ethnic cleansing of Kashmiri Pandits, i.e. denial of co-existence of any other community in the state by the representatives of the majority community. According to such radicalized elements in the State, you have to be a Muslim if you want to live in the State without a threat of being slew by the Jihadists in the valley.
Hypocrisy of the Separatists’ sympathizers:
The Jihadist insurgency in Kashmir is not a cause of worry only because of its inherent potential to keep Kashmir in bewilderment but also because it has found the indirect support of several political outfits, self-acclaimed intellectuals and news traders in the country who continuously disguise a largely communal and secessionist movement as a freedom movement of sorts. But this fake propaganda stands completely exposed after the separatists’ communal pitch and the hypocrisy of the separatists’ sympathizers is out in the open now. It is a matter of utter disgust that those who regard BJP’s opposition to illegal Bangladeshi immigrants in Assam and West Bengal as extreme intolerance stemming out of extremist Hindutva are silent as far as the rights of those who have been residing in Kashmir for 70 years and who were all victims of an undeserved want.
The claim of alterations in Kashmir’s demography because of the influx of Hindu refugees is a ruthless joke on the Kashmiri Pandits.
In fact, Kashmir’s demography is no longer intact it was badly damaged almost 3 decades through by the very same set of people who are now pretending to be worried about Kashmir’s demography. The bold step of legalising Hindu refugees, by the Union Ministry of Home Affairs will only undo some of the damage done in 1989 and vest a legitimate right in those who have become an intrinsic part of the valley.
Conclusion:
The brouhaha over the Hindu refugees and the protests by the separatists ought to be taken seriously and the Government must consider it to be a challenge by the radicalized Islamists in the State. This also sums up the Kashmir turmoil and makes it certain that the separatists are not victims of military excesses but preparators of religious intolerance who refuse to accept a secular and democratic form of Government and prefer, in fact pursue an Islamic theocracy.
