Mahesh Chander Sudan
We, the people of India, have been witnessing terrorism in Kashmir valley for last three decades despite all-out efforts made by successive governments both at Centre and the State. There is no denying the fact that the entire activity has been well planned, coordinated and sponsored by our adversary to destabilize the law and order of the state. History stands witness to the fact that the state of Jammu and Kashmir was not ruled by English Empire at the time of independence and hence it underwent accession like many other princely states on26 Oct 1947 by executing document under Indian Independence Act of 1947. This instrument of accession was signed by then Maharaja of J&K and accepted by Governor General of India. This accession is considered final and irrevocable as it gains its strength out of sovereign act prescribed under Indian Independence Act, which did not have any provision of conditional, temporary or interim Accession. However, the government of Pakistan has been contesting the accession stating that it was fraudulent, and this bone of contention became responsible for ongoing unrest in the valley. The present security scenario poses a very dangerous challenge for administration to handle as the act of terrorism has shifted its paradigm by involving local youths so that it takes the shape of mass movement against Indian Union. The trained terrorist of various active outfits of the valley have so far been infiltrated from across the border involving religious fundamentalists to present it as Jihad to the international community. It causes a heavy loss of human lives besides posing grave danger to cultural, religious and regional integrity of the State. Active involvement of local youths noticed in recent attacks on security forces, political leaders and IED blasts in southern part of Kashmir valley indicates a tactical shift in the modus operandi to dodge security forces. It therefore becomes imperative to understand whether this shift is tactical or strategic and in case of later it indicates towards a very serious activity being planned by terrorist groups.
The way ahead therefore calls for a cohesive and well-drawn plan to deal with Kashmir issue leaving no scope for any more misadventure. It presents a very delicate situation for intelligence agencies to keep round the clock surveillance on all active and sleeping agents of antinational forces involved in luring local youth especially well educated and trained lot towards militancy. This calls for a comprehensive and well-drawn operating procedure to be made by a joint operation mechanism installed under direct supervision of Home Minister and his counterpart in the state Machinery. We the people of J&K have been left without our elected government in place and this vacuum, though being managed by Governor under President Rule, is bound to affect local law and order and public life very seriously. In democracy like our Republican democracy, it is of utmost significance to assure proper representation of general masses through their own democratically elected representatives rather than any type of governance provided under temporary constitutional provisions. A joint analysis of the current situation to be made by involved Police and Administrative agencies along with local Panchayat level representatives so that security forces including Army is relieved of local issues to carry out dedicated hot pursuit against active terrorists to flush out their existence and pave way for local administration to prevail upon local youths and leave no chance for their exploitation by terrorist groups. With ongoing pressure on Pakistan government by international community, it is an advantageous occasion for us to bring our youth in the mainfold and engage them in national building by providing effective employment avenues to them.
In the given situation, it is emergent for central ruling dispensation to overlook their political interest and hold elections for forming local government without loss of time as any more delay may result in public discord and open cry by general masses for their democratic rights. Political investment of any sort at this juncture may not give high dividends as loss of local youth and security personnel on daily basis is causing heavy loss to the families concerned and to the nation at large. This trend set in with predetermined objective of our enemy shall prevail without much efforts and cause long term psychological effect on the mind of involved youths. We shall therefore rise above our immediate and short term interests and give an opportunity for peace to prevail rather than leaving effected people in a confused state of mind as no clearly visible effort in terms of policy instrument is felt by them. Absence of close interactive public representatives for advancing and propagating policies of the government also creates distance between ruled and the ruler. We therefore sincerely urge for early conduct of state elections to form local government and establish close interactive and good governance free of any corrupt practices in the larger interest of the Nation. Jai Hind, Jai Bharat.
(The author is Wg Cdr (Retd)
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