It is important for New Delhi to shun extremist stand and show some flexibility. All the issues can be resolved if a conducive and flexible environment is created
Dr Tasleem A War
“There is the recently uncovered phenomenon of saffron terrorism that has been implicated in many bomb blasts of the past” (Indian Home Minister P Chidambaram).
The violence against Kashmiri Muslims and other minorities continues unabated even after Congress party won the Parliamentary elections.
There are media reports about the attacks on minority communities especially in Orissa, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand and now Jammu and Kashmir. The only difference between the other states and J&K is that in the other states of India, it is the hooligans of Hindu organisations like RSS, VHP and Bajrang Dal which are involved in violence against Muslims; while in J&K the violence is carried out by the men in uniform. The sixty odd deaths in the valley for the last two months and victimisation of Kashmiri students in Jammu University will help to elucidate the point. The violence and harassment is in keeping with the modus operandi of the right-wing Hindu so called nationalist and its allies. They are exploiting the common masses in the name of religion and region.
It was former Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee who boastfully made assurances for the resolution of Kashmir issue and even went to the extent of saying that “Kashmiris should get anything that is possible within the ambit of humanity”. He is also reported to have said that “anything less than azadi for Kashmiris”. And now when they are out of power, they are themselves opposing it tooth and nail and can go to any extent to communalise the issue. This kind of political strategy serves them two purposes: it keeps Muslims terrified and the ruling party engaged. This is precisely what they did during Amarnath Land Row-when they transported their goons from the different parts of India to Jammu and created havoc by enforcing economic blockade, killing Muslims, burning their houses and thus hijacking the entire nation. This way they partly succeeded in widening the religious and regional divide and further alienating Muslims. Although the secular parties have been demanding anti-hate laws against these Hindu extremists and equal opportunities in employment and the police but it is still a far cry and a lot more needs to be done in this regard collectively as these Hindu fundamentalists are posing a real threat to the secular character of India.
After the demolition of Babri Masjid in 1992, the BJP and its allies sought to project a new moderation and conduct themselves in a responsible manner. However, communal incidents continued to occur from March 1998 onwards. Bal Thackeray maintains that “I want in Mumbai goondas, hooch distillers, smugglers and all Marathi people.” His nephew followed him and they unleashed violence on the North Indians and then declared that if this makes them terrorists they are proud to be so. Malegaon bomb blasts of 2006 and 2008 created an upheaval in India and sharply crystallised the political parties. Never before was the town mentioned so often as when ATS Chief Hemant Karkare started asserting Lt Col Prasad Shrikant Purohit of the army, Sadhvi Pragyasingh and others of Hindu extremists are responsible for the terrorist attacks of September 29, 2008. Nobody ever claimed any responsibility for either of the two terrorist incidents of 2006 and 2008. Both of them took place in September and initially were explained as a sequel to September 11, 2001 attack on WTC twin towers and the Pentagon. Immediately Lashkar-e-Toiba or Al Badre were blamed even al Qaida.
The situation for Kashmiris is not very different as our only fault is that we are Muslims and we are in majority here and that is what is pinching in the eyes of Hindu fundamentalists. The so called secular leadership is not very different as they claim to be secular and democratic but their democracy and secularism has gone to dogs when seen in case of Babri Masjid demolition, Gujarat carnage and primarily the Kashmir issue. The question is how are these so called secular leaders of India different from these hooligans as their troops kill us mercilessly as they have been given the license to do so by the Indian leadership who sit in New Delhi. In short they are involved in violence against Kashmiris in an organised and systematic way and on the other side of the state, the police and these Hindu fanatics, first tear the answer scripts of students in the examination hall, manhandle and maltreat them and then the worst of all, arrest them and implicate them in fictitious cases under one pretext or the other. It is really a shame on India as the best of the nations has become the worst of all in having stooped to the level of animality. Under the prevailing circumstances in which people, their interests, human values and honesty do not matter but power politics dominates everything, I see only one hope and that is the sane Indian leadership and intelligentsia, who can save the country from becoming an animal farm by taking these Hindu communal cum terrorists to task and ban these anti-India, anti-humanity organisations for the indainness lies in religious tolerance and giving free and equal space to everybody regardless of caste, colour, creed and religion. Hindu fundamentalism is a real and potential threat to India and it is high time that concrete steps are taken to ensure that no further violence and harassment takes place in the name of religion. It is not that there is no way out both of the long standing Kashmir dispute and the impending doom of fundamentalism but something substantial and result oriented and meaningful needs to be done and it cannot be confined to lip service rendered by a handful of secular leaders who expressed their sympathies for the bereaved families of Kashmir and the Nobel laureate, Amartya Sen, who expressed his worry about Kashmir and suggested to Indian leadership that it need to rethink its policy on Kashmir. It is high time for the sane, secular and democratic leadership of India and the intelligentsia to come forward and to prevail upon the India to deal with Hindu fundamentalism sternly and tame these unruly and peace disruptive forces and also to address the issue of Kashmir politically. India cannot afford to allow this problem to linger for generations and allow people of different mindsets to fish in the troubled waters. This problem is to be resolved once and for all through a time-bound and meaningful dialogue, but the need of the hour is to bridge the gap between Kashmiris and the New Delhi and that can be done by revoking AFSPA, demilitarisation, release of political detainees. These are the real confidence building measures that must be taken failing which the situation can become completely uncontrollable and prove disastrous. Furthermore, it is equally important for all the political shades of opinions to shun extremist stand and show some flexibility. All the issues can be resolved if a conducive and flexible environment is created. And to achieve that end, the mainstreams and separatists leaders must very forcefully plead the genuine issue of Kashmir without further delay. The innocent Kashmiris are sandwiched between the devil and the deep sea.
Author is Assistant Professor, Department of English, University of Kashmir and can be mailed at tasleemelt@gmail.com.
