Daily Excelsior... Editorial

EDITORIAL

MARCHING WOMEN

A tide in the affairs
of women

By M J Akbar
The fortunes of the three dominant woman in Indian politics are on test in the May...more

Teaching English
the wrong way
Academic Pulse
By Prof. S K Bhalla

Fortunately or unfortunately in our J&K State English is a compulsory subject at the ....more

Kashmiri children face cultural crisis
TALES OF TRAVESTY

By Dr Jitendra Singh
When the yesteryears' heart throb Joy Mukerjee descended down the steps of Nishat ..more

Et eu, Bangladesh!!

By Dr. R. L. Bhat
For four long decades, as India grew closer and closer to the erstwhile Soviet block, .....more

Make Sikhs a party
to peace talks

By Mohan Singh Kala
After Indo-Pak war of 1971, India took Kashmir as a settled problem. Kashmir being .......more

The Kashmir conundrum

By T N Kaul
For the last fifty three years Kashmir problem has been giving sleepless nights and fearful .........more

EDITORIAL

MARCHING WOMEN

Many women, according to a study, are now coming down with male health problems. Why so? Answer: They are part of the same world. It is because they are subjected equally to the stresses of modern-day urban living. However, it is true that men and women react differently to corporate and metropolitan living and stress. The study shows that women are better equipped to deal with stress. Do all women in the corporate sector drink, smoke, sleep around? Maybe, that is right. But it is not surprising. Just as more children go to school, it is likely that more of them will get injured in traffic accidents on the way. Will it be possible to suggest that children should be restrained from going to school? But that is not all. Let us accept for the moment that smoking and drinking is unhealthy and undesirable, that it is a symptom of a disease. But is this disease one that affects only Indian women? Do we not care if Indian men, or for that matter, Western women, suffer from it? And what exactly is the disease? Surely the virus is spread by alcohol and tobacco industries pushing their profits and their sales. We need to protest and campaign against the active and immoral promotion of drinking and smoking, the media’s hype of consumerist corporate and star life-styles, Governments that are dependent on liquor excise and so on. Pointing a moralistic finger at a few women can never be the solution. Our traditional life has also ensured that more than two thirds of the victims of mental illness-of depression and other neuroses in Indian society-are women. Even then the fact remains that women have, once again, shown that they are intelligent, responsible, good at working under pressure. And this time it is at the top levels of the corporate world. Well, these women are visible, their jobs are glamorous and the media love them. They have burst into the spotlight of the public gaze. Think of nurses, doctors, construction workers, farm hands, middle-class mothers, domestic servants. Think also of single women who travelled as independent labour to far flung parts of the British Empire to work in plantations and lay railway lines, and the old women who beg today at the traffic intersections. Many changes have come about in the better-off sections of our towns. Girls are going to school and college, they are going out to work in a more or less routine fashion, they are riding cycles, scooters, driving cars, using public transport and walking on the roads in a fashion that did not exist earlier. Most conspicuous of all is the advancement of the gender question both by media and by the State, for reasons of their own. The media has devoted far more space to women’s question than it has to any other comparative issue like, say, the Dalits, the adivasis or the Muslims. Women. Once upon a time the very word drew up very feminine images of creatures who were a complete contrast to the (wo)men word appended to describe them. The situation today is what it was not yesterday. Given equal opportunities, rights and power, women have responded no differently from men and have in fact adopted many of the abhorrent male attitudes. Backed by position, power and money, women behave no differently from men. They can make arrogant bosses at their work-place, they can hire and fire without a qualm, they do not think twice about a quickie with a male colleague, they smoke, drink and generally believe they are making merry!

A tide in the affairs of women

By M J Akbar

The fortunes of the three dominant woman in Indian politics are on test in the May Assembly elections. All three are out of power. All three are hungry for power.

The easiest fate to predict is that of Jayalalitha, the Revolutionary Leader. You don't have to be an astrologer. You don't even have to go to Tamil Nadu. You can sense the chemistry building up that will change a Government. The DMK ensured her return to office by putting her in jail. For the electorate that was tantamount to atonement for whatever sins she may have committed in office. The authorities ensured her victory by denying her a nomination from four Assembly segments. This is just the kind of decision that infuriates an electorate, particularly when it is already angry against a ruling party. Mrs Indira Gandhi's return to power became certain when a foolish Janata Government removed her from Parliament; the Janata MPs forgot that the people had the right to remove a whole Parliament from Parliament. The intricacies of the DMK's case, if it has any, will be lost in the roar of protest in Tamil Nadu. You can already hear that roar building up, even in the early stages of the campaign. The DMK has heard it, and the depression is visible on the faces of the DMK leaders.

Nor can absence form the Assembly prevent Jayalalitha from being sworn in if she wins the elections. The technicalities are on her side. She can be sworn in without being elected, as UP's Rajnath Singh was, and remain Chief Minister for six months. If she wants to drive the system crazy (the system has driven her crazy, so why should she not return the compliment?) She can resign one day before her six-month term gets over, and then get reelected by her party and re-sworn in by the Governor. It has not been done before but Indian democracy is dotted with things that have not been done before.

Has Mamata Banerjee, the Revolutionary Bleeder, peaked before the start of play? The wind has been in her favour of years; but is the last breeze before 10 May changing direction?

There is a delicious irony in Bengal situation. The most committed support to the Communists is coming from the industrialists of the State, or at least from the few that are left there are still consider Kolkata their home. They are terrified at the prospect of chaos if the Marxists lose. Part of the reason is implicit blackmail. No one wants the return of the kind of militant and violent trade unionism that drove industry out in the first place. Over the years the owners have made their peace with the unions on varying terms and they have no desire for fresh negotiations. But there is more than the threat from CITU that worries. Mamata Banerjee has pitched her politics at too high a decibel-level. While this may have been necessary in Opposition, the pitch is unsuitable for governance. The non-Leftists (you can't call anyone in Bengal a Rightist) have not helped their cause by indiscipline. Ajit Panja is distraught at losing the comforts of Delhi for the variable pleasures of Kolkata. And our old friend Barkat Ghani Khan Choudhary merely has to open his mouth for controversy to float out.

Has Bengal simply got accustomed to a Marxist face? The relationship between the CPI (M) and Bengal is a bit like an old marriage now. Squabbles and fights break out at the first opportunity, and there are always the temptations of bit on the side, but divorce is simply not the Bengali thing to do.

The CPI(M) has also been intelligent enough to appreciate that the biggest enemy of any relationship is boredom. After more than two decades in power Joyti Basu had staled in the job. It is now certain that Jyoti Basu would have lost the election to Mamata Banerjee; that impressive cult figure of Bengal politics had simply lost interest in his job, as he was the first to admit privately. His paty understood these facts and introduced Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee at the right moment. The party changed the Chief Minister before the people changed the Chief Minister. Since Indian politics is run by leaders who treat their political parties as fiefdoms, this is unfamiliar. You cannot imagine a Sonia Gandhi or a Laloo Yadav or a Mulayam Singh Yadav or a Jayalalitha or, yes, a Mamata Banerjee placing their party's interests above their own; in fact, they would be unable to distinguish the difference. The CPI (M)'s political integrity could be its saving grace.

The operational word is "could". Not will. Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee should have become Chief Minister even earlier, and given time to stir the layers of still life in Writers' Bulding with the energy of at least one or two new ideas. All he has on offer are promises. A promise is an uncertain crutch after nearly twenty-five years in power. The word is that the Marxists are considering ideas like the ceration of special economic zones without existing labour laws, safe from orthodox attack because the model is Chinese. The Marxists of course can do what they would never allow any other Government to do.

Then there is Sonia Gandhi, the Evolutionary Pleader. She is always pleading for something or the other. These Assembly elections were made for her to win; it impossible to believe how or why the Congress could lose anywhere. The anti-incumbency mood is so strong now that it has buffeted even the Centre. Kerala is the old cakewalk for the Congress-led alliance; the Malayali is a fair voter, and believers in giving both sides a chance. This year it is A.K. Antony's turn.

Assam should have been as easy for the Congress as Tamil Nadu is for a Jayalalitha. There is unprecedented voter discontent against the AGP.The Congress could put up the traditional lampposts as candidates and win. Except that it did one better. The Congress party sold tickets. Literally. Money was paid and tickets were handed out. There were bidders because a Congress ticket is considered a passport to the Assembly. The AICC became a pathetic bazaar in which the party symbol was sold to highest bidders. The anger in Guwahati at this brazen corruption and mismanagement has already been reported, but the party leaders could not care less since they do believe that this is going to be a lamppost election. The Congress may yet win because of the anger against the AGP, but the size of its victory will be significantly diminished. And although Congress leaders will never find the courage to say anything against any president publicly, they have no defence or explanation. Discuss Assam and find an embarrassed Congressman.

The opportunity is there. The BJP Government in Delhi has lost its elan; the BJP is going to be hammered wherever it is contesting. But the Congress is unable to occupy the space being vacated by the BJP because it is bridled by uncertain leadership and tainted by venality.

There is a tide in the affairs of the three women. Jayalalitha will sail on Cleopatra's golden barge. Mamata Banerjee is drifting on the Hooghly, suddenly uncertain about her destination. Sonia Gandhi is watching the tide from a bungalow on the riverfront.

Teaching English the wrong way Academic Pulse
Academic Pulse

By Prof. S K Bhalla

Fortunately or unfortunately in our J&K State English is a compulsory subject at the undergraduate level though its teaching is defective and not meeting the aspirations of taught. For the messy State of teaching English the framers of syllabus are responsible as at the time of syllabus making it is insisted on including "literary texts-stories, one-act plays, poems and humorous and imaginative prose". Strangely enough the major part of academic session is lost in paraphrasing the texts and no time is left for learning the intricacies of grammar and composition.

As per a newspaper article published long back all the students of B.A or B.Sc in the USA have to undertake a course in composition. The students have to write twice-one in the classroom and another time at home. This is despite the fact the American undergraduate students use English as their mother tongue. Teaching English is pure hard work and no amusement.

A pertinent question agitates the mind. What is the basic purpose of teaching English? The aim should be to improve the reading speaking and writing skills of vast majority of students so that they may be able to comprehend with ease the books of their major subjects in English and make a proper use of treasure house of knowledge stored in the libraries of colleges in a state of shambles on the one hand as also speak and write well on the other hand.

In the columns of this esteemed daily in the recent past in three letters the discerning readers have even expressed serious concern about "Essential English Grammar"-A reference and practice Book prescribed for students of 10th class by J&K Bose which is for elementary learners that is learners with very little English. The problem is not with the book but its level which does not commensurate with the expected level of English at Matriculation state. The contention that this book should be supplemented with a standard book of Grammar is not erroneous but who will bother for these improvements.

Coming back to the course content at the undergraduate level it is required of framers to redesign the compulsory English course content with emphasis or grammar, composition and spoken English. Mean-while during the course of paraphrasing texts in the classroom the teachers should analyse of writer's linguistic devices. We must produce hand books for teachers and conduct refresher courses. This process will make teaching of English more purposeful. Teachers with weak grammar can refresh their knowledge of the same within short duration by self-study.

Faulty course content of General English and the consequent teaching has one more interesting aspect. In Jammu city in the last few years there has been a multiplication of tutorials offering English speaking, writing and proficiency in Grammar course by charging an exorbitant sum of money @ Rs. 1800/- for 3 months from hapless students. This exercise could easily be undertaken in our Govt. colleges by teachers of English but there is no such planning. Generations of students have rolled out of colleges year by year without any marked improvement in speaking and writing skills. Let us not love our ignorant student but teach them for preparation of life's ordeals and competitions.

The aforesaid methodology is not climbing amount improbable. Sleepwalking in education is dangerous. We need teachers of English whose presence on the campus and teaching is electric.

Kashmiri children face cultural crisis
TALES OF TRAVESTY

By Dr Jitendra Singh

When the yesteryears' heart throb Joy Mukerjee descended down the steps of Nishat Bagh swinging his guitar to the tune of O.P. Nayyar's "Phir Wohi Dil Laya Hoon", he was infact symbolically beckoning the entire world to the Vale of Paradise and in the bargain also exposing the common masses of Kashmir to a multi-cultural tourist influence from diverse societies of the world. With the militancy having shut off the Valley from the rest of the world for over a decade now, gone are the days when even an ordinary Shikara Wala or Bakery Wala was familiar with the latest of the latest in the world and was even capable of communicating in broken English, French or German depending on who was the tourist seeking his services.

If one is to believe the recent media reports from Kashmir Valley, the inference is that an entire generation of Kashmiri children is growing up in a cultural vacuum quite unaware of their traditional past heritage and at the same time quite unaccustomed to the incredible new vistas of the modern world. The Times of India narrates the story of a Kashmiri boy called Mohammad Haziq who saw a cinema screen for the first time in his life when his parents took him to watch a movie during a visit to Jammu since most of the cinema halls in the Valley went non-functional much before young Haziq was born. For Haziq, it turned out to be a horrifying experience as he was nervous and uncomfortable watching a big action screen for the first time in his life and finally he had to leave the cinema hall in terror. A few months back, there was a report regarding a well-to-do Srinagar based Doctor who arranged a special trip for his adolescent son to visit the Dal lake and get a feel of how the picturesque place looks like because the Doctor suddenly realised that his son had grown up into a teenager without having ever seen the lake which was never a part of the boy's strictly followed "home to school and school to home" daily itinerary.

This is indeed a very disheartening scenario because the youth in Kashmir who comprise the major active chunk of the Valley's population are totally cut off from the revolutionary new exposure to scientific and social modernisation through which the rest of India is passing.

Ironically, what has not been outrightly pointed out so far is the fact that the Kashmiri youth, adolescents, teenagers and youngsters who are at the receivng end of all this disadvantage primarily belong to the Valley's lower middle class or poor class. The children of the rich and the mighty -- be they the progeny of Ministers, bureaucrats or separatist leaders of Hurriyat brand --- have been tacitly adjusted outside the valley thus ensuring for themelves the optimum education opportunities followed by equally rewarding vocational avenues. Incidentally, most of the Kashmiri separatist leaders who persuade the innocent Kashmiri youth to jump into the militant Jehad have already made sure that their own sons or daughters are kept away form all this.

The Kashmiri Pandits who were allegedly hounded out of their homes and hearths in the Valley have suffered one of the history's worst turmoil as a displaced population. But, hats off to this highly intelligent and organised community! The elders among the migrant Kashmiri Pandits made it sure that even if their children are to live in deprivation, they are not to be devoid of higher education and exposure to the outside world irrespective of whether they settle down in Jammu, Delhi, Noida or elsewhere or even abroad. To that extent, the migrant Kashmiri Pandits have been luckier than their Muslim compatriots who continue to live under the shadow of gun in the Valley. Infact, it is the children of the Valley's less resourceful Muslim families which bear the brunt of this cultural assault.

Sooner than later, the realisation might dawn on the protagonists of the socalled freedom movement in the Valley that they have ruined the same very generation of the Kashmiri youth for whose upliftment they had ostensibly launched the present militant compaign. Now, even, if militancy comes to an end, the children of Kashmir will continue to remain victims of an unprecedented cultural crisis. The common man will continue to remain a victim of retrogression. And, Umapathy, disgraced by his self-proclaimed custodians, will continue to remain a victim of the poetic butt "Aaj Deewar Khaa Gayi Saaya, Aaj Maine Yeh Vaakya Dekha!"

Et eu, Bangladesh!!

By Dr. R. L. Bhat

For four long decades, as India grew closer and closer to the erstwhile Soviet block, theslender thread of Roosevelt having put in a good word sustained the air of amity betweenIndia and the USA. Yes, it was a mere good-word, brief and bare, and when Churchill curtly told him not to meddle in the colonial affairs, particularly India, the American President did not pursue his call for India’s independence any further. Yet, that goodwill of a moment kept Indo-American relations warm all through the chilling years of cold war. India had not merely ‘supported’ Bangladeshis in their quest for freedom, but virtually won them their independence from the Pakistani yoke. Ironically, Pyrdewah is the locale from where the vehicle Indo-Bangla amity, Mukhti-Bahini took off. And here, that bond was broken this April. Like all umbilicil that must be severed at the points of origin?

But Pyrdewah is only a culmination of a process that began within the very decade Bangladesh was formed. Why, the state of Bangladesh had not been in existence for four summers when its virtual architect Indira Gandhi was rudely awakened, on that Independence Day of 1975, to the knowledge that Sheikh Mujib had been killed along with his whole family. His daughter, Hasina, the present PM, was saved by a fluke, being away with her diplomatic husband. Today the scion of Mujib’s family has herself hammered in the proverbial last nail to seal the coffin of dead Indo-Bangla friendship, and prepare it for an indecent burial. Then as now, it was an intelligence failure of colossal dimension, though…again, then as now…it is the Indian leadership’s willful denial to appreciate and accept the truth of the realities as they obtain on the grounds around, which is more to blame for the fiascoes of Indian policy.

Sources reveal that over the late eighties when the circulation of dubious characters upon the Kashmir landscape – political as well as the geographical ones, like high mountain reaches and possible infiltration passes -- was reported to the then PM Rajiv Gandhi, he dismissed them as of little consequence. Because, he didn’t want any irritants in the newfound camaraderie with the NC? In fact, the deep inroads that ISI has made into Kashmir as also over the rest of the nation, are not so much the result of efficiency of the Pak intelligence network as the consequence of the willed disregard of the developments by the political leadership of India. Because they would not like to put a particular vote-chunk of theirs into jeopardy. Or, not like to break the false image of all-is-well-with-secular-India to be shattered. Between the futile, furtive considerations and the false consolations, the nation is being unnecessarily beaten, bashed and broken.

Sheikh Mujib was not killed by a coterie of army men but by a sentiment that sees friendship with India as a betrayal of sorts. Pyrdewah is not the handiwork of some ambitious general but the flaring up of the same sentiment, which wants to foster disaffection with India. Sometimes this sentiment gets subdued momentarily by the pressing problems of the day.

Like it happened in the early seventies when the cruelties of Pak army pushed it down and they sought somebody – anybody – to help them out of it. Again, in the nineties when the lawlessness coupled with economic deterioration really sickened them, they installed the India-tainted Hasina on the PM’s chair. But as soon as the pressing impingement is removed, the hatred springs up.

The same hatred that strew Gandhi’s Naokhali path with shards of glass and filth. That was the hatred that saw India partitioned. The hatred that gets seething enough to not only capture and kill the Indian army personnel but to scald them in boiling water!

Ponder on whence that hatred cometh, and the stray bits fall into place. Bangladeshis may have rebelled against Pak subjugation within decades of founding a religion-based nation, but the primary severing remains that from India, the perception of Hindustan. That was why they quickly got over the Mujib-murders and settled to a life of hating India. That was what made Farrakha a prickly issue. That was what saw India-baiting Khalida into office soon after the end of military rule. That was what prevented the innocuous gas supplies to India being put into effect. There Tin-Bigha transfer is not seen as a concession, but a wresting from (enemy) India. That explains why the whole Bangladeshi press and the people go celebrating the ‘victory’ over the half-a-square-mile territory of Pyrdewah. And when they encounter a patrol party of Indian border police, with whom they have been very chummy only days before, who are not at war with them, they not only capture and kill them, but torture them, boil them and disfigure them in a visitation of the ancient Arab practice of misah! All, the people and the army, the press, opinion makers and political leaders…all see in this thankless barbarity a victory over a hard enemy.

Now, what is that? A territorial dispute? Not at all. As it is, Bangladesh holds as much of Indian territory under the so-called ‘adverse occupation’ as does India hold of the Bangladeshi land. Yes, the land in question is inconsequential. Any other grouses? Well, none at all, unless their liberation from Pakistan has come to be seen as a lasting injury done to them! With nations, as with men, it is not the tiny parcels of land that cause conflicts, but the conflicting sentiments that turn minor maladjustments into major disputes. Those sentiments have always remained in jarring disquiet and keep flaring up at the least excuse.

It is said that Sheikh Hasina needs to counter the anti-India lobby in Bangladesh. Right ho! That is the point. There is a robust body there that is per se opposed to India, and needs sometimes be assuaged, sometimes to be accommodated, always to be catered to! The same as is said of the Pak politicos and the generals, too. They too need to keep those lobbies, which are inherently opposed to India’s idea, concept and existence, in good humor. And, invent grouses, causes and claims to keep up the belligerency with India. Indians to confound their confusions – willed, not logical ones -- have attributed the Pak phenomenon to feudal and so-called hard-liner elements overlooking the fact that it is the anti-India sentiment that helps feudalists and fundamentalists grow, adding new nabobs and jehadis to it and not the other way round. Bangladesh’s can’t be called a feudal gangesterism, even. So how did this lobby grow? Because, India helped free Bangladesh? Because, India has been overly indulgent in accommodating her? Because, India has been an easy refuge to lakhs of her citizens? Or, because Hindia is a natural enemy? And, has to be broken, or confronted, at least irritated to show that the government of Bangladesh is not a wee-bit behind its people in the hatred of Hindustan?

Forget the big-brother humbug. India inspite of her size and numbers has practically been a kid-brother to her small neighbours. Remember that Pakistan planned and executed the 1947 aggression and India went purring to complain to the Security Council! The latest instance of the case is the starkly impotent way she has responed to the Bangladeshi outrage in Prydewah. And then, the primary big-brother-baiter Pakistan has had no qualms in cuddling up to the biggest of her border brothers, China. Had India actually acted as the big brother, her neighbours would have been more circumspect in their dealings with her. Of course, that would not have made any difference to their clang-some sentiments, though the hatreds would have been suitably shrouded. The innate hatreds, unchecked, are bubbling over and pouring out while India is ever ready to misread the reality of the hatreds with theory and fiction of her own. To her own peril, for sure!

Make Sikhs a party to peace talks

By Mohan Singh Kala

After Indo-Pak war of 1971, India took Kashmir as a settled problem. Kashmir being a question of life and death for Pakistan adopted a long term policy for annexing Kashmir Valley and for this it formulated a number a policies such as Project Topas, setting up of ISI agency and starting of Madrasas and establishing of training camp for imparting training to militants. In the Madrasas young boys were taught Quranic education to brain wash them to start Jehad against non-Muslims for the annexation of Kashmir valley; they were trained in the militant camps, financed and directed by ISI to achieve this end. In this Jamaat-i-Islami, some Muslim countries, the ISI and Afghan militants played a vital role.

Like followers of other religion, sikhs are a part and parcel of Kashmir. They were inhabitants of POK and have been living in Kashmir Valley and Jammu since centuries. Driven by tribals in 1947, they left their hearts and home and settled in Jammu. All of them were not allotted land, the rights of which (expect Khalsa Land) have not been given to them, considering them still as part of POK, as Pandits are being considered as part of Kashmir Valley. They have not been fully compensated on the grounds that Kashmir is a disputed State. As Such refugees of POK represent that area which is under unauthorised occupation of Pakistan so far dispute of the State is concerned. Not only this we sacrificed in 1947 (about 15,000 people killed) for the territorial integrity of the State. We also fought in 1965 and 1971 war for the country. Sikhs living in Kashmir did not migrate; it has strengthened communal harmony and secularism for which Sheikh Mohd. Abdullah, Pt. Nehru and Gandhi stood despite risk to their lives and property. We still continue to live even after being killed in large numbers. Sikh population in Kashmir stands for the presence of India and it is a source to strengthen for communal harmony not in Kashmir only, but in the whole of India. Sikhs have contributed for the development of the State and in economics, social political and other fields in the State. If we represent India and sacrifice for its, it is for India to safeguard the rights of the Sikh community in Kashmir.

Peace should be given a chance by entering into a dialogue with the parties and people of J&K State as a whole. Efforts should be made for confidence building measures. K C Pant should talk to all groups of people regardless of their political affiliations. Talks would generate their own momentum. Intra-region dialogue and opinion of all the communities, ethnic groups, political parties and individuals should be ascertained before the start of people process. Let it be a continuation of Lahore Peace Visit. Sikh community is a necessary party. It wishes early return of peace and normalcy to the strife-torn State. While inviting other communities and groups the Sikh community has been ignored by Mr. K C Pant in doing so.

If the Sikhs are asked to talk, they should talk in terms of their future, history, part and present and real politic without touching peripheral matters such as security, relief, rehabilitation and other petty matters. As a miniscule religious minority in Kashmir, representing India, it has to decide to live in harmony with majority community. They should insist on constitutional guarantees for their rights and future. To represent the community, views of the eminent and intellectual sikhs should be ascertained so that a policy is framed for safeguarding the interests of the community.

The Kashmir conundrum

By T N Kaul

For the last fifty three years Kashmir problem has been giving sleepless nights and fearful moments to the inhabitants of this paradise on earth. A very uncertain future looming large before everyone has contributed enormously to the erosion of the Sufi strain of Islam - a very rare thing that ought to have been preserved. I remember the days in late 47 when Kashmiri Muslims, with a sprinkling of pandits, marched through the streets of Srinagar shouting, "Hamla-awar Khabardar, ham Kashmiri hain tayar". It was all spontaneous, it was Kashmiriyat personified. Out in the streets were descendants and votaries of Nund Rishi and Lal Ded-simple unarmed people with deep faith in Rabi-ul-almeen, praying for the welfare of mankind. It was the light that stemmed the aggressor and enthused Gandhi Ji.

Something has gone wrong somewhere that changed the ethos of the votaries of Nund Rishi and some of them took to militancy. Some Muslims of the Valley, the followers of Molvi Yussuf Shah, were pro Pakistan even in 1947, but their number was so limited that they did not dare to organise even a single parallel demonstration.

Even today it is the presence of a few hundred gun-wielding militants with constant replenishment of men and arms from across the border that keeps the problem alive and at the centre of political stage. Not long ago, the author of 'operation Topac' bewailed his inability to solve the problem to his liking and in his own military manner for want of response from Brahmin-zadey' of Kashmir.

From legal and constitutional angle the problem appears to be quite simple, but it has been made quite complicated by the egregious reactions of our leaders to the well planned manipulations of events by Pak leaders. The ruler of J&K state was constrained to sign the Instrument of Accession on October, 26, 1947 when Pakistan, violating the agreement of peace signed with his started occupying by force the territory of the State. Sending a mixture of regular and irregular forces of capture the state Pakistan imposed economic blockade on this small state. People pined for common commodities like salt and sugar.

With the signing of the Instrument of accession by the Maharaja, endorsed by the Muslim Majority of the State under the leadership of Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah (Mir Waiz Yousuff Shah having fled to POK for want of a mass base) the accession was legally, constitutionally and morally complete and valid. This fact was indirectly admitted by the UNO which asked Pakistan in its resolutions to vacate the illegally occupied areas of the State for the holding of plebiscite in the State.

For want of clear Kashmir Policy every Prime Minister has contributed to the confusion surrounding this complex problem. Recall Shri Narsimha Rao declaring that short of Azadi he would give everything to the people of Kashmir and sky was the limit. The poor statesman felt convinced that the law-abiding people of Kashmir had taken to insurgency.

It is true that Muslims in Kashmir, as Muslims anywhere, have a soft concern for Pakistan, but that does not mean they want to become a part of Pakistan. Mehjoor put it very aptly long back. "I would give anything for India, but my heart is with Pakistan". People in Kashmir are not all out for Pakistan. Since Indian leaders have always given the impression that the situation is in flux, everyone wants to get as much out of it as he can. A dethroned Chief Minister (a patriotic Indian) exhorts young boys to go to Pakistan for arms training out of frustration.

Some of them did go for arms training and returned with arms, mercenaries and Mujahides. That should have opened our eyes to the realy natures of the present problem. The problem is essentially of unilaterally porous border. It is porous for India but perfectly sealed for Pakistan. This one way passage for ultra-modern arms, mercenaries and mujahids is the root cause of the present problem. It is a problem extorted by Pakistan because of our inability to guard our borders very effectively.

This lack of a clear policy towards Kashmir, betrayed in the musings of Mr. Vajpayees "We have to shed the beaten track and look for alternatives", has encouraged some individuals or groups of individuals to pose as mediators and goodwill brokers on this issue-something that has never happened with any sovereign state. The Kashmir study group (KSG), the brain child of Farooq Kathwari, suggested that India should take some confidence building measures to solve this problem; concede that J&K State is disputed territory, reduce its security forces in the State; stop pro-active (Cordon and search) operations; start dialogue with All Party Hurriyat leaders; and allow International Human Rights Agencies to monitor human rights violations in the state' we have conceded two demands already, stopped cordon and search operations (cease-fire) and initiated steps for giving Hurriyat leaders the importance of a party of the dispute. Strangely enough, KSG ignores vacation of aggression by Pakistan. It takes no cognizance of merger of Northern areas of the State (Gilgit Baltistan) with Pakistan, nor the ceding of J&K State territory to China. It ignores cross border terrorism, which is the root cause of the present turmoil in the state.

The proposal of creating a quasi-independent state with both India and Pakistan responsible for its defence was sent to the government by Fazl-ul-Haq Qureshi after the collapse of July 24, 2000 cease fire. The Hizb spokesperson disassociated himself from the said plan. Sayed Ali Shah Geelani, the then Chairman of the All Party Hurriyat, said that through Jamaat-e-Islami was not for division of the State but if parties reach a consensus of divide of the State but if parties reach of consensus to divide the State, we will accept it. He is for merge of Kashmir with Pakistan on religious grounds. Confusion gets confounded when in our eagerness to find a lasting solution to the imbroglio we assure the other party of going an extra mile.

All leaders talk of a lasting solution to the imbroglio and all leaders know that it is impossible unless the nation is betrayed. It is not a question of giving some economic or cultural concessions. If it were so, the Samjhota Express, the Lahore Bus Service, and the unilateral "most favoured nation" status given to Pakistan, should have solved the problem long ago. These measures did not even soften the rigidity slightly. It is a question of ceding territory which is strategically too important even through a blade of grass may not grow there -to be thrown away.

Pakistan made Kashmir problem the centre of its domestic and foreign policy from the very beginning. Its leaders and military dictators made people so mad from Kashmri that even an attempt to bring down the importance of the issue may not only pose a threat to the government there but also create anarchy. By encouraging fundamentalists to make it an issue of Jihad it has eliminated any chance of softening its attitude. The Chief Executive regards the present cease-fire as a "hoax", living in the midst of fundamentalist Frankenstein, his assurance of being "flexible" fails to carry conviction. Having failed to involve the UNO in solving the bilateral issue to his advantage he is trying to make it a trilateral issue so that APHC is assured that nothing is being done "behind their lacks". Pak leaders regard merger of Kashmir with Pakistan as every essential to completing the unfinished task of partition.

For India offering any part of the area that is with it is equally impossible. Offering the Valley on a platter simply because of its Muslim majority is simply preposterous because these are more Muslims in India than in Pakistan. Besides the Kashmir valley would have become a part of Pakistan had the Muslims there extended even the slightest co-operation to the Pak marauders in 1947.

There is much substance in Farooq Ahmad Mir's opinion that the Hurriyat shall have no supporters when the guns fall silent. Even as it is, it has not footing in Jammu and Ladakh. It can give calls for total bandhs and hartals in the Valley, but it cannot give a call to the militants to cease fire for even a very limited period of time. It follows the dictates of the militants. The Hurriyat is the political face that Pakistan has succeeded in creating for itself in Kashmir because of our mistakes.

Conditions have charged radically since 1947. The secretary General UNO made it clear to Pakistan that the UN resolutions regarding J&K State are not mandatory. He also ruled out the possibility of a third party mediation. Mr. Clinton warned Pakistan not to think of redrawing borders in blood. It would be egregious on our part to dream of walking an "extra mile", or to think of 'new alternatives''. Yielding to political pressure of organised groups and their supporting countries for creating a quasi-independent Kashmir (which will be gobbled up by Pakistan soon after its creation) as a lasting solution to this political conundrum will be yet another Himalayan blunder in this regard.