Brig Anil Gupta
Yet again the power brokers of Kashmir have played their cards in a manner that the nationalist forces in Kashmir have been given a stern message. The message is loud and clear that Kashmir narrative propounded by them – “Kashmir is a Political Problem” is the last word and no Kashmiri dare challenge that. The sacking of Dr.Haseeb Drabu from Council of Ministers can be dubbed as an internal matter of PDP because the party is the ultimate authority to decide as to who should become a minister and who shouldn’t. It is a well – established democratic norm and Chief Minister’s prerogative to keep or otherwise an individual in the Council of Minister which he/she heads. But the reason for which Dr.Drabu has been sacked is a cause of worry because he has been targeted for daring to speak the truth. He has been made to pay for harbouring nationalist ideas. There is no denying the fact that Kashmir is a settled issue. The accession of the state of Jammu and Kashmir to the Union of India and its final assimilation with the Republic of India is undisputable and a historical reality with empirical evidence. It is also true that the Constitution of India confers a special status to the State vide Articles 370 and 35A. The Constitution of Jammu & Kashmir, drafted by a constituent assembly comprising mainly of Kashmiri leaders, enumerates in unambiguous language that “The State of Jammu and Kashmir is and shall be an integral part of the Union of India.” The Article 4 of the same Constitution further states, “The territory of the State shall comprise all the territories which on the fifteenth day of August, 1947, were under the sovereignty or suzerainty of the Ruler of the State.” If at all there is an issue it emanates from Section 4 of the Constitution and that amounts to regaining the illegally occupied territories of the State by Pakistan commonly known as “Pakistan Occupied Jammu & Kashmir (POJK)”. All other issues are subservient and majority of them manufactured by the lobby of Power Brokers.
The problem is that the narrative of power brokers is based on false hood. They have deliberately supressed the truth and misled the Kashmiris to ensure that they remain in the corridors of power. According to media reports, Dr.Drabu said that Kashmir should be seen as a social issue. It is his perception of the nature of Kashmir issue which has cost him dearly and made all the power brokers pounce at him. Any sensible Indian will not find anything wrong in the statement of Dr.Drabu. Infact, he is not the lone voice in Kashmir but there are many like him who think on the similar lines but they are so awed and overpowered by the political might of the power brokers that they dare not open their mouth. The statement of Drabu may embolden these voices was a major concern for the power brokers and that is why they acted post haste to show him the door and nip in bud the rapid rise of nationalist forces in the Valley. The advocates of Kashmir being a “political issue” are neither realists nor idealists. They live in a utopian world and sell false hopes and dreams to innocent Kashmiris. They use the Kashmiris as cannon fodder for their own political gains. They fully know and realise that neither Azadi nor Greater Autonomy or Self-Rule will ever see the light of the day. Yet, they keep feeding these narratives to Kashmiris which alienates them from rest of the nation creating a divide between the Kashmiris and others. While they continue to fill their coffers with money and provide luxurious life and modern education to their kith and kin, the common Kashmiri is pushed towards “gun culture” and radical madrassa education. While the disillusioned Kashmiris look upto these leaders for their bright future but they keep pushing them into gullies of darkness through bundles of false hopes and promises. The day these power brokers also start speaking the truth and accept the reality of Jammu and Kashmir being an integral part of India as enshrined in the State’s constitution, and convince the Kashmiris that all forms of struggle against the might of the nation are futile, the problems will cease to exist. It would be naive to expect that it would happen overnight but a sustained effort to change the mind-set would be needed.
It is not merely a social issue but to my mind a socio-economic issue in Kashmir. The vibrant multi-ethnic, multi-linguistic, multi-religious and multi-cultural Kashmiri society has turned into a monotonous monolith. The root cause for this is the greed for power of the power brokers. The zenith of this greed was the rigged elections in the state in 1987. Disenchanted and disgruntled by the petty political games played to remain in power, the youth revolted. Pakistan which always cast an evil eye on the peaceful Kashmir lost no opportunity to fish in the troubled waters and launched the so-called “Religious Militancy” in Kashmir. It soon turned into a full- fledged Pak sponsored proxy-war with cross-border terrorism as its main weapon. The economy of Kashmir was ruined because tourism, the mainstay of its economy, suffered a major setback. The tourist infrastructure was systematically destroyed. However, money started to flow freely in the Valley. While Pakistan funded the terror machinery and proxy war, the Indian Government opened its coffers to beat the nefarious designs of the enemy. The agencies and security forces worked in unison to fight the terror. In execution of their duties the security forces were blamed occasionally for alleged excesses. This created a rift between a section of the local population and the security forces. The power brokers who had either vanished in thin air or even joined the terrorist network during the turmoil resurfaced when the security forces gained an upper hand and restored some semblance of normalcy. They exploited the emerging rift between the security forces and section of the masses to further alienate them. The democracy was restored but the political class failed to meet the aspirations of the people due to poor governance, nepotism and favouritism, corruption, growing unemployment and lack of development. Funds continued to flow from the Centre but without much financial accountability leading to further disenchantment among the youth. With the introduction of Wahabbi Islam, bewildered youth got attracted towards religion. Gradually, the radicalisation of Kashmiri society began. Intolerance soon crept into the society.
The ongoing terrorism in Kashmir was also overtaken by jihadi terror and the demand of an Islamic state also began to echo in the air. Kashmir is being prepared as a launch pad for Ghazwa-e-Hind. All this happened because the power brokers were shying away from accepting the reality and encouraging alienation through false hopes of Azadi, Greater Autonomy and Self-Rule.
The sane voices were either murdered or muffled. Alas, the power brokers continued to prosper benefitting either from appeasement or compromise from the Governments in Delhi. This has emboldened them to the extent that they do not wink an eyelid before punishing a person who dared to speak the truth in front of an enlightened audience. Afraid of the effect it may have on the masses back in the Valley, they joined hands (irrespective of political loyalties) to supress the sane nationalist voices. It is now time for the rest of the nation to unite and expose the power brokers and provide opportunity to many likes Drabu to come out in the open and not only express but accept the truth that Kashmir is not a political but a social issue.
(The author is a Jammu based political commentator, columnist, strategic and security analyst. The views expressed by him are entirely personal)
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