It makes a mockery of Kashmir’s unionist politics if our public places are named by people sitting in Delhi

It first appeared in news when the glazed terminal displayed Srinagar International Airport instead of Sheikh ul Alam International Airport. Till then people believed that the up gradation of the airport at Srinagar would be accompanied by its naming after the great 14th  century Muslim saint of Kashmir, Sheikh ul Alam.

Although there should have been no hesitation in naming it after the saint, as Sheikh ul Alam does not represent any radical political belief concerning the Kashmir politics; he being a character that belongs to an era when there was no India, no Pakistan and of course no Kashmir conflict, forms a benign symbol.  If this symbol of Kashmir’s national being is disallowed expression at a place which is supposed to be visited by people around the globe, it strengthens the suspicion that India is always scary of Kashmir emerging as an entity that has its own history and symbols of national being. Although the two major unionist parties, People’s Democratic Party and National Conference have made public assertions about their desire to name the airport  after Sheikh ul Alam, but ironically the Srinagar Airport Authority denies having received any communiqué from the  Airport Authority of India in this regard. Difficult to reconcile that if PDP passed a resolution and sought clearance from the then Prime Minister, A B Vajpaye, why Airport Authority of India did not respond to it? If for such an ordinary and harmless thing it takes concerned authorities in India so long, in case they really are unaware of the whole matter, then how is Kashmir going to solve its bigger problems through an institutionalised mechanism that is in place in the shape of state administration! The reluctance of certain sections at Delhi as alluded to by some sources, smells of the traditional politics of Delhi to disallow any kind of expression to Kashmir’s collective self. It is here that the right wing Sangh Parivar and ‘secular’ Congress finds a reason to join hands. This has been witnessed in past also, and the fresh example of it is how Jammu city was instigated to counter the uprising in Kashmir valley. Pertinent to mention here is the visit of Sonia Ghandi almost a year back when she threw open the tulip garden and the same was rechristened as Indira Ghandi memorial garden. At that time Kashmir’s collective sensitivity was badly hurt, but none from Delhi cared about that. Unfortunately the Unionist Politics of Kashmir has grown on lines that Delhi always remains inaccessible. Naming of any public place may not matter much in ordinary circumstances but it matters when the themes involved are directly related to national expression of a people. Both NC and PDP talked of sub-nationalism in their political campaigns in the recently concluded Assembly elections, if they cannot get an Airport in their state named the way they want it, they better stop talking about bigger things like demilitarisation, cross LoC trade, autonomy, self rule etc. It only makes a laughing stock of them.