“I need to rebuild my credibility brick by brick,” Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah admitted recently in an interview. He is right — and his opponents would be wise to draw the same lesson. The violence that bloodied Kashmir's urban streets this summer constitutes the most serious challenge the State's fragile political system has confronted since electoral democracy took the first steps towards re-institutionalisation in 1996. The ugly violence demonstrated that substantial numbers of young people in Kashmir's cities feel disenfranchised by the political system and are hostile to India. Growing numbers are turning to Islamist hardliner Syed Ali Shah Geelani for leadership. It is clear we haven't seen the last of these troubles, which have broken out every summer since 2005. Police stood by silently on Saturday as motorcycle-borne squads linked to Geelani's Tehreek-i-Hurriyat brutally enforced a shutdown. For all practical purposes, the fragile peace in Srinagar has been purchased by ceding control of parts of the city to the Islamist Right.
Putting more police on the streets to shoot at unarmed protesters cannot, and must not, be the answer. The reality is that Islamists have cashed in on the failure of their adversaries to address the concerns of swathes of young people. Neither the National Conference, which holds all eight Assembly seats in Srinagar, nor its main opponent, the People's Democratic Party, has chosen to organise a single peace meeting or rally. Neither has any immediate stakes in the areas where violence is taking place: the National Conference's legislators won because few people voted, and the PDP hopes resentment against them will eventually rebound in its favour. Earlier this month, the PDP chose to stay away from an all-party meeting called to discuss the violence despite a personal appeal from Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to party chief Mehbooba Mufti. Ms Mufti's action was deplorably shortsighted. The growing power of the religious Right will eventually discredit both the ruling coalition and its opponents. New Delhi must do its part. Even if a peace deal with Pakistan seems beyond grasp, it could attempt to initiate a quiet process of engagement with pro-dialogue secessionists. But the principal responsibility rests with J&K's own politicians — who have often pointed out that many of the State's problems can be traced to interference from New Delhi. Experts have made many suggestions for first steps forward: for example, the setting up of local citizens' bodies to liaise with administrators and police along with investments in education and entrepreneurship as well as non-lethal crowd control technologies. But none of these can be realised unless the State's politicians step out to bat courageously.
Keywords: Kashmir issue, civil unrest
Comments:
Some people are of the view that India shall not always be blamed for the crisis in Jammu and Kashmir. It can be true in some cases but in the present disturbance the union Government is fully responsible as it has handed over the power in such hands where one would never expect good. No doubt the Congress party may be doing this for its own good but it should remember that such tactics shall not be resorted to where the security of the nation is at stake. Omar Abdullah himself created this present mess by not administering the state in aproper way. He has only one anxiety in mind and that is how he can secure and maintain his position throwing to winds the interests of the people and the nation.
Government of India is mum on having created a divide by an Act of Parliament the people of Sikkim into two groups:
Sikkimese
Non Sikkimese
even though they lived in the same geaographical situation and in the same conditions.
This divide will create another Kashmir, if the mistake made by Union Government is not rectified immdly through amendment in the Act of Parliament.
The earlier we vacate Kashmir and give them freedom, the better. They will ruin themselves by infighting and Pakistan will make them slaves. Ms.Mufti may be in a Pakistan jail. They will then repent for their foolishness and try to come back to India. But it will be too late. So much of our Army will be set free, a lot of money will be saved and we can trounce Pakistan with our defence superiority. Nehru's idea of holding on to Kashmir was one of his most foolish decisions. As an Army man who served in Kashmir, I can vouch for how much they hate you there. Why should you hold on to a territory which is declining in every respect year by year?
Successive Central governments, mainstream political parties in the country and even the regional parties in the State of Jammu and Kashmir have not been able to win the hearts and minds of the people of that unfortunate State during the last several decades after independence. Such a condition was found conducive by Islamist extremists and Pakistan for their nefarious activities. The State, especially the Kashmir valley, has not therfore experienced peace for a long time. The opinion makers in our country are doing a disservice to the country by focussing only on the machinations of our enemies and not sufficiently dwelling on the acts of commission and omission in this regard of our political leaders, in power or in the opposition. Statesmanship is what Kashmir calls for from our leaders. Alas, that is not forthcoming!
There is a need for winning the confidence of the people in the political system. But also as our home secretary G.K.Pillai said groups like LeT,JM etc are involved in the present crisis of J&K. The separatist groups are also responsible.
The people of the J&K have to think whether they want to enjoy the share of growth of India or they want to destroy their future in the name of fundamentalism.
The Kashmiri youth who, unfortunately, for various reasons, resort to violence, have to be brought within the democratic political process - the responsibility of the local and national politicians; the unruly members of the population who indulge in stone throwing have to be controlled NOT with bullets from the security forces who are trained to kill external enemies but with other civilised crowd control measures adopted by a well-trained police force; and, the stray elements of the population who, with encouragement and help from without, have to be dealt with the full might of the armed forces, if necessary in hot pursuit to the safe sanctuaries they enjoy elsewhere.
This is unbelievable in Indian politics. A politician as a CM is accepting his positive and negative output. Have we seen any politician accepting his fault without any hesitation (normaly we see that Indian politicians always try their best to be right.) But he sees his work not eyeing his political benefit but for the national interest. This is really great example. These days India needs such types of politician to come forward and show their calibre to develop the nation.
This is a utter nonsense. After spending thousands of crores of taxpayers money, we are not getting anything back from Kashmir. People of which country in this world tolerated this? It happens only in India. Why can't media thinks in terms of common man, who is paying for this for last 50 years? Why this one sided editorials? Please go and ask today's young generations in Bengaluru, Chennai or Hyderabad. To see snowfall they are going to Switzerland and people are spending money on Singapore, Thailand and Malaysia for honeymoons and vacations. Nobody thinks about Kashmir anymore.
Why the rest of India is asked to bleed to meet the expenses of Kashmir. Cannot we live without Kashmir ? We are living without Bangladesh & Pakistan all were part of India before 1947 now. We can put to use more than 15000 crores that we spent in Kashmir every year for the betterment of our people.
Time has come to India to learn to live without Kashmir
Righly said "State's politicians step out to bat courageously".This courage can help the youth of Kasmir to work towards the right path.The old people ,especially people holding the top positions in various organisation can come out and lead the youth .They can show sea of oppertunities to the youth .That will kindle their thought to work towards prosperous, peaceful Kashmir.
Why doesn't the governemnt of India takes steps to make Kashmir, the part of industrial growth that we are seeing in the rest of the country. Why not give incentives to industrialists and make them set up plants in the state. This will not only channelise the youth into something productive but will also help in changing separatists thinking as they'll see the chances of a better livelihood here. It's time we stopped using force and started using economic tools.
The present scenario in Kashmir is the making of the militants, the fanatics who poisoned the minds of people so much so that a rational way of thinking has become impossible. To create a conducive atmosphere for this, the government should root out these extremists. But as long as Pakistan incites terrorism across the border, it is hard to contain the situation. The solution lies in curtailing the crossing overs with a firm hand.
We should have hold on Kashmir now. If we leave it the way it is now, then it may be dangerous for INDIA. We should try to bring proper controls and win the hearts of people. We should appreciate the statement made by CM of Kashmir and give him a chance to reunite the people of Kashmir and keeping in mind the interests of the people and the nation.
Sir,
Omar Abdullah seems to be a good man. At least he appears honest,is quick to a fault,unlike his father who played to the galleries, on both sides of the international border. Abdullah Sr. followed the policy of running with the hare and hunting with the hound. He always kept New Delhi on tenterhooks with his equivocations, all in a vainglorious bid to keep himself in power. No wonder, the ground realities in Kashmir only worsened during his tenure.
Omar should distance himself from the advisors in his father's coterie. Instead, he should not hesitate to learn from mistakes that he is bound to commit while trying to handle as vexed an issue as Kashmir. He should try to rehabilitate the Kashmiri pundits who had to leave their motherland for no fault of theirs. All the major political parties have failed them because of electoral compulsions. Only Omar seems to be capable of doing something meaningful.
Vinod Pandey
The window of opportunity to resolve Kashmir happened in the 1950s and it was missed. At that time, the military in Pakistan had not tasted blood and Pakistan was still under a civilian leadership. Pakistan's refusal to remove its troops from there as per the UN resolution became a roadblock to the plebiscite. And Kashmiris at that time would have voted for independence, considering the anger that they had against the tribals who were unleashed from Pakistan.
Now, things are quite different. Pakistan is almost on the brink of becoming a rogue state. It is surviving on American aid. It needs the Kashmir conflict alive to keep its hold on power and control the minds of Pakistanis. If Kashmir conflict is resolved, Pak military will be struggling on its feet. So it does not want an end to the conflict or a solution, though it projects that intention for public consumption. If Kashmir is let go, Pak military will instigate another conflict by inching its way into Kashmir.
Thank God,there is at least this newspaper which seems to be nearer to truth than other highly biased Indian media when it comes to reporting the true face of Kashmir problem.
To cut the whole story short,this has been proved umpteen times clear that the people of Kashmir want complete and unconditional freedom from India.This might be painful to my Indian brothers but given the true face of "Indian Democracy" in Kashmir,which we have seen from last 21 years and are facing still now,we pray every single moment to God to relieve us of this agony of being under the rule of India.
We cannot simply give the power to the sessionists. At the same time Union government has to take sincere steps to first of all improve the conditions of Kashmiris without any bias and lobbying. Sincere and true efforts for Kashmiris development will reward democracy to stay on and will cure the differences in the Valley...
Independence means interdependence.India as a state is multicultural and almost multi national.India will break if Kashmir is snatched away.All states including Maharashtra have elements like MNS which will want to become new country, since they will feel others are robbing them.
Moreover there is no question of listening to people who throw stones,who intimidate people and make them leave their homes. Kashmiri pandits plight is well known to the world.This is not freedom struggle.
Remove article 370 let businesses establish their business in Kashmir, their youth will get jobs and good livelihood. Then there won't be any street protests. Now the only employer in Kashmir valley is Pakistan via Hurriat or LeT.
It is not only loss of faith in the political system but also people in India have become apathetic. There is no unity and responsibility for actions at any level.
The situation in Kashmir is the same, there no good people for governence.
Going through the comments it seems that people in India are not still familier with the Kashmiri problem. This confusion has been created by the Indian media itself which do not represent the true picture of J&K to its people. J&K was an independent country before India got freedom.
As Neeraj Sibal (Posted on: Jul 19, 2010 at 20:55 IST) said 'industrialists required to be given intensives to develop J&K'. But the fact that I am aware of it is that no other than born Kashmiri can buy a land in J&K. Being a citizen of India, I can not, may be I would rather say I am not allowed to buy any land/property in J&K. At this point why one will take risk to put up an industry over there if there is no guarantee to his factory/property.
What Kashmir needs is scrapping of article 370 so that business can invest there and Kashmiri women can be free to marry who ever they want without fear of losing the land rights. Kashmir needs capitalism and economic and religious freedom. Let the protesters know that they will be tried and put in jail for life for attempted murder if they try to stone anyone. Post the army in the streets and let the police do the investigative work only. Police is not for murderous mob control. There is RAF for that.
Oh yeh, Kashmiri pundits need to be resettled with land and money compensation in a new city constructed for them and be exempt from Article 370. It can be a demonstration project to show how economy will boom once land can be sold and purchased freely. They should be allowed to oversee their own security and other local affairs.
It is the easy money which is flowing in kashmir which is partially responsible for such mishaps. The funds, grants and subsidies have made people enjoy the facilities and talk of rights without performing their basic duties.
The present youth who acquire degrees without having knowledge by unfair means, bank on government for the job and are hesitant to go to private sectors or venture out because they know they know little about their subject.
The lenient approach of the government towards its people without any control/ grip on masses, and harping on reduction of SF without realising behind the scene activities has lead to such problems.
We just cannot give away Kashmir. It will shake the very foundations of Indian federal structure. When we look at Independent Indian history at one point or another many states wanted independence. If we say let Kashmir get lost, then that decision will boomerang on us.
Kashmir was and will be an integral part of India.
As outsiders we can criticize our armed forces and the politicians there. We need to be sympathetic to the establishment and to the suffering people. But if some think that violence and burning of government offices are going to solve their problem and get them independence from India they live in fools paradise.