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EDITORIAL By not responding to the invitation of Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed for the Iftar party in Srinagar recently, leaders in the secessionist camp have not exactly covered themselves with glory. Clearly, they think that politics and social decorum are two sides of the same coin. There are perhaps a few convincing arguments that can be advanced on their behalf. By taking part in the Mufti’s party, for instance, they would have exposed themselves to the charge of hobnobbing with the State Government. Ideologically they detest, at least publicly, the present system of governance. Left to them, they would want to uproot it lock, stock and barrel. Given their agenda, how can they, the .........more How tenuous is our link with peace is demonstrated by the panic caused by mere bursting of crackers outside the Mahajan Sabha Bhawan at Shalamar Road in the heart of old Jammu city recently. Circumstances have made Jammu a sleepy town after 10 p.m. By that standard, it was, indeed, an odd hour when the loud and deafening noise of the crackers had breached peace. As the reports indicate, the police had moved in time to take positions at all sensitive points in the area. It had alerted even those guarding the Raghunath Temple. Precautionary measures are necessitated before identifying whether there is an actual threat or just a false alarm.. . .....more |
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By Joginder Singh Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu escaped a bid on his life last month. It was the work of extremist People's War Group (PWG), who set off a series of powerful landmine blasts at the foothills of the famous Venkateswara Temple. Four others, including a minister and an MLA were injured in the remote-controlled blasts on the Ghat Road to the Temple. ........more By Babu Ram Sharma The wounds and injuries inflicted by the conquerors, marauders and rulers of the vanquished states are sweetly spoken as their gracious blessings and goodness done to the conquered people. The conquerers are the arbiters of the conquered. They flaunt their superiority in all respects and denigrate the.....more India-Bhutan open joint front against cross-border terrorism By Yogendra Bali The Himalayan Kingdom of Bhu-tan, extremely sensitive to in-trusion of its land and airspace, has now decided to forge a joint front with India to rid the North-Eastern sector of the Indian sub-continent of cross-border terrorism. Perhaps one reason for this firm policy decision was that terrorists from .......more |
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EDITORIAL By not responding to the invitation of Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed for the Iftar party in Srinagar recently, leaders in the secessionist camp have not exactly covered themselves with glory. Clearly, they think that politics and social decorum are two sides of the same coin. There are perhaps a few convincing arguments that can be advanced on their behalf. By taking part in the Mufti’s party, for instance, they would have exposed themselves to the charge of hobnobbing with the State Government. Ideologically they detest, at least publicly, the present system of governance. Left to them, they would want to uproot it lock, stock and barrel. Given their agenda, how can they, the self-professed seekers of separation from the country, be seen on the same platform with those who want to defeat them in the pursuit of their larger designs? Possibly this can also be argued that the Iftar party is not a religious occasion compelling their presence. Such get-togethers these days have become more of social occasions where the host assiduously makes a bid to woo the others mainly by catering to their taste buds. They have little relevance for the political beings. If these reasons alone have moved the secessionist leaders to ignore the Chief Minister’s attempt to draw them to his party, there are many who will like to give them the benefit of doubt. At the same time, however, what can’t be ignored is that these gatherings provide an opportunity for the guests to inter-act with each other. There is an exchange of ideas. Therefore, the secessionist leaders have denied themselves a good chance. By making their presence, they would have got exposure to the other point of view. They perhaps would have come to know why their influence and popularity has declined with the gradual improvement in the situation in the State as a whole and the Valley, in particular. Why have people at large developed aversion to violence despite all their efforts to tame them through the power of the gun? How can they be wiser about the changed scenario by shutting their doors on everybody else? Strangely, the majority of these leaders doesn’t fight shy of attending the Iftar party at the Pakistan High Commission in New Delhi. Yet, they feel diffident about doing so in the case of the elected Chief Minister of their own State. Does this ambivalent approach not give in their real intentions? Viewed from a broader perspective, this approach of the secessionist leaders points to growing intolerance in the political class. For a long time, the Hurriyat Conference, when it was united, had neglected Jammu and Ladakh regions in its scheme of things. The secessionist conglomeration had to rue its attitude gradually as it had, in the process, exposed itself to the charge of leading only a narrow-minded regional and religious movement. Mr Shabir Ahmad Shah had parted company with the organisation on this issue and the late Abdul Ghani Lone had vainly waged a valiant fight to widen its horizons. Presently not only the Hurriyat is divided down the line, even its constituents are fragmenting. Invariably its leaders trade charges against each other, of accumulating riches to defeating the common cause itself, which shows they have no love lost. Given this background, it is not difficult to imagine why the constituencies of all of them have shrunk. In this context, it may be noted that even the nationalist camp is not free from its share of problems. In 1972, the late Sheikh Abdullah had declined to condole the death of Bakshi Ghulam Mohammad. Obviously the former had not been able to live down the memory of having been stabbed in the back by his most trusted lieutenant in 1953. In the recent years, Dr Farooq Abdullah had not invited his political rival Abdul Ghani Lone for the wedding of his son and present National Conference president Omar Abdullah. Lone had hit back by ignoring Dr Abdullah at the time of his son and the current People’s Conference chief Sajjad Lone’s highly publicised marriage with the only daughter of Mr Amanullah Khan, one of the founders of the Jammu-Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF). Such instances cause a bit of surprise in view of the fact that the Valley is a small cauldron. Practically most of the leaders personally know each other. This should have been all the more reason that they observe social courtesies. Instead, there is a whimsical thinking that the stakes in public life are too high to let a sense of decency prevail over political differences. It is not for nothing that more seasoned statesmen have always advocated the need of delinking politics from personal and social life. One can truthfully follow an ideology and yet be quite at ease while respecting the others’ diametrically opposite perceptions. For this one does not have to sacrifice personal relationships. Perhaps this is possible only if one has a clear vision and seriously believes in a political philosophy and stands by it. In sharp contrast what one sees these days is the total absence of ideological convictions from our political life. In the name of politics what is dominating is the greed for personal pelf and glory. No wonder then that selfish ambitions prevail over the need for building a healthy society through mutual accommodation. How tenuous is our link with peace is demonstrated by the panic caused by mere bursting of crackers outside the Mahajan Sabha Bhawan at Shalamar Road in the heart of old Jammu city recently. Circumstances have made Jammu a sleepy town after 10 p.m. By that standard, it was, indeed, an odd hour when the loud and deafening noise of the crackers had breached peace. As the reports indicate, the police had moved in time to take positions at all sensitive points in the area. It had alerted even those guarding the Raghunath Temple. Precautionary measures are necessitated before identifying whether there is an actual threat or just a false alarm. Only less than a month ago, we have seen a small incident of a mere cricket ball entering a temple triggering communal clashes in Gujarat in which three persons were killed and many were injured. Arguably, Gujarat has become an altogether different sob story. The Godhara train massacre and the subsequent communal riots in which hundreds of innocent persons had been just eliminated have earned for the western state an image it must strive to live down. One of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad leaders, belonging to Gujarat, has virtually threatened communal riots in the country if the demand for the construction of the Ram Temple in Ayodhya is not met. Such angry outbursts are totally unacceptable. Our State, fortunately, is free from such rabidly communal elements. Such a view may appear to be at variance with the bitter reality that almost the entire Kashmiri Pandit community has been forced to migrate from the Valley. This calamity has been inflicted on us by the terrorists. At a personal level, even today the Kashmiri Muslims and the Pandits display mutual bonhomie at social functions. There is hardly any Muslim leader who has not openly expressed the desire that the Pandits should return to their homes in the Valley. This is an issue which has to be dealt with at a much bigger scale. Presently, we are concerned with the need for avoiding panic in everyday life. The task is easy to achieve if all of us are vigilant and ready to cooperate with each other. |
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