Truthfulness has never been counted among the political virtues, and lies have always been regarded as justifiable tools in political dealings
Sajad Bukhari
In the political landscape of Kashmir, truth is not merely misrepresented or falsified; it is overtly mocked. As is well known, the Government of India has repeatedly betrayed the people of India, furthering a legacy of mistrust while carrying the practice of distortion to new and almost unimaginable heights.
Like all the previous governments in India since 1947, the current UPA coalition is engaged in pure political theatre, giving new meaning to Hannah Arendt's claim that "Truthfulness has never been counted among the political virtues, and lies have always been regarded as justifiable tools in political dealings." In a bid to promote their dangerous policies in the name of national security and integrity, it wilfully produces and circulates news reports in order to provide the illusion that the lies and the policies that flowed from them were supported by selective members of the media and the larger public. Truth has become the enemy of democracy in India vis-a-vis Jammu and Kashmir because it does not support the spectacle and the reduction of citizens either to mere dupes of power or commodities. Newest embellishments to this policy were the wide hype of ‘intelligence’ reports and phone tapes apropos the ‘instigation’ of current protests in Kashmir and the threats to minority Sikh community.
And unfortunately, their deceits and lies are complemented by the " patriot" who are too busy denouncing as un-Indian any Kashmiri who questions GoI’s official watercourse of deception and deceit. They stand up in the Parliament, swearing by their ‘Indianess and debate as Kashmiri representatives to spread the illusion that the ideologies that flow from them are supported by the larger public in J&K and the fringe elements, if any, fantasize about the other side of divide only because they have illusion of their pastures, which are unfortunately not so green. These lies to the Indian masses are often much more plausible, more appealing to reason, than reality, since the liar has the great advantage of knowing beforehand what the audience wishes or expects to hear. So the speech of National Conference patron, Dr Farooq Abdullah, in the Indian Parliament should not surprise many, at least in Kashmir nor should the counter speech of Assadduin Owaisi surprise any, for these are people who cannot endure lies that transgress certain precincts in politics.
While all governments in India resort to misrepresentations and lies, we in Kashmir have entered a brave new world in which lies, distortions and exaggerations have become so commonplace that when something is said by any politician, it is often meant to suggest its opposite, and without either irony or apology. In such circumstances, language loses any viable sense of preferentiality, while lying; misrepresentation and the deliberate denial of truth become acceptable practices firmly entrenched in the Indian politics and the establishment, its agencies, part of its society and the dominant media. Ironically, some of these pundits are actually on the government payroll for spreading the intellectual equivalent of junk food. And some of the agencies are actually being paid by the GoI to make such claims.
But then these anti-democratic regimes must recall Benjamin Disraeli's famous aphorism ‘what we learn from history is that we do not learn from history.’ There comes a time when people get tired- tired of disinformation and disguise; tired of politics of lying and the culture of deceit; tired of being segregated and humiliated; tired of being kicked about by the brutal feet of oppression; tired of so-called governments stripped of accountability. The protest against inhumanity and indignity does echo, and this echoing cannot be silenced all the times. However difficult the moment, however frustrating the hour, it will not be long, because truth pressed to earth will rise again. How long? Not long, because no lie or deception can live forever; because you will reap what you sow; because the arm of the moral universe is long but it bends toward justice. Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. At the same time they must also bear in mind, that we are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. What affects one, affects all indirectly. We have no alternative but to protest. For many years we have shown amazing patience. We have sometimes given our Indian brothers the feeling that we liked the way we were being treated.
Today our young generation is compelled to look back at where we've been and how we got to where we are today after more than six decades of politics of deceit. They are politically much aware than their elder generation. That is why they resorted to nonviolent means of protest. The stone throwing is only a reaction to the use force to quell their peaceful protests. Their nonviolent resistance is far from the spirit of retaliation. They have now come out on streets to seek freedom and justice unarmed and peacefully. They know taking on moral responsibility for those who hurt them is the highest form of dignity, the greatest example of strength.
None of us has any hope from the mainstream politicians. What our Hurriyat leadership needs to understand, though, is that the first act of any resistance is to gain clarity about one’s own situation, and unity of purpose among the oppressed. Clarity alone brings community among the oppressed. And clarity comes when the downtrodden protest their oppression in the name of their own dignity, deciding not to dream of becoming someone else, but to stand together with their own kind. Lord Acton, the British historian once said, “Power tends to corrupt; absolute power corrupts absolutely.” But powerlessness also corrupts. In situations of oppression often the oppressed and the powerless lose moral clarity. The two factions of Hurriyat along with other separatists must realize that their accord on peaceful agitation poses an unanswerable challenge to their adversaries and opens avenues for settlement. Even those must be forgiven who participated in election and accommodated. That must happen when people find a common dream. Reconciliation takes real courage: the courage not to be overcome by evil, but to overcome evil with good.
They must also understand that when resistance breaks forth peacefully, when the oppressed protest their situation non-violently, they do introduce a new meaning and a new possibility, both for themselves and for those who oppress them. Resistance leads toward freedom- for the enslaved, but also for those who are so lost in the pretensions of their power that they do not know themselves as enslavers.
If we protest courageously, unanimously and yet with dignity, then the history will write about us, ‘there lived a race of people, the people of Kashmir, of people who had the moral courage to stand up for their rights. And thereby they injected a new meaning into the veins of history and civilization.’ It’s not difficult to silence a good man. But it is very difficult to silence a good man’s dream, because it becomes the dream of others. You can kill good people, but you can’t kill goodness, the arm of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.
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While all governments in India resort to misrepresentations and lies, we in Kashmir have entered a brave new world in which lies, distortions and exaggerations have become so commonplace that when something is said by any politician, it is often meant to suggest its opposite, and without either irony or apology. In such circumstances, language loses any viable sense of preferentiality, while lying; misrepresentation and the deliberate denial of truth become acceptable practices firmly entrenched in the Indian politics and the establishment, its agencies, part of its society and the dominant media.
