Kashmir Today

 

A few days back, a friend of mine gave a phone call to me from Srinagar. Nothing unusual, come to think of it, since we, old friends, keep) calling each other to know about each other's welfare, particularly as age is catching up with us. But this time, he seemed to be fishing for something and when almost hung up, he sarcastically asked, "Captain Saheb, no reaction to Irfan Gull's article?" Now, telling you the truth, I had no idea who this Irfan Gull is and what article he had written that my Valley based friend was talking about. I made a plain confession and promised to get back to him only after I had gone through the piece. I could hear my friend emphatically saying, "Irfan is a Kashmiri. This call made me a little restless, and was curious to read this piece. But my laptop was just not responding to my commands, my knowledge about these gadgets being primitive. However, with a little effort and help from a dear friend, I was able to get this piece on my mobile and go through it. I wish, I could reproduce this piece in foot in KS as it is sort of an eye opener.

"The mass exodus of Kashmiri Pandit community has extensively been discussed since this unfortunate incident unfolded in the 90s. It has been exploited for petty political gains and the state has been polarised. The false propaganda from both Muslim fundamentalists of the Valley and Saffron brigade of India has solidified to the extent that the real history has been distorted. The young generation of both communities have been fed with garbage churned falsified facts marked with intoxication of hatred This has not only deepened the alienation but has also given a major blow to Kashmiriyat for which we Kashmiris have been known, This is how Irfan starts, and I thought this piece cannot be any different from the run of the mill pieces written by them earlier and words like 'alienation', 'kashmiri' 'saffron brigade' did not suggest that Irfan would be any different. Anyway, I continued reading and I was proved wrong. Here is a Kashmiri Muslim young man, an engineering student, courageous and gutful to talk the truth.

He writes, "Nobody has the guts to call a spade a spade and as Kashmiri Muslims we must take the moral responsibility for this exodus since it was our duty to ensure the safety of the minority community which is enshrined in our religion and culture". He continues, " Our mosques were used to harass our neighbours, our religious sentiments were misused to expel our neighbours from their native places and we passionately or tactically endorsed it. Since then decades have passed but we are yet to shake our conscience and are still in denial of accepting the unaltered truth." He asks questions, "Are we fearful? Whom do we fear?", and then comes out with an answer, "Sometimes I ask myself: are we not hypocrites? I have discussed this issue with fellow Muslims a lot and a lot of them feel the same pain that I feel". He does not stop at that, he invokes his religion and says, "As Muslims we wholeheartedly say WE FEAR GOD ONLY and God says in the Quran 'I am Truth', and the Truth is Pandits were killed, forced to leave their homes. We cannot deny the fact that loudspeakers reverberated with the following slogans:

"O Merciless! O Kafirs! Leave our Kashmir! Anyone wishing to stay has to get converted to Islam O Muslims, Arise, O Katirs scoot. Islam is our objective, Q'uran is our constitution, Jehad is our way of our life, Kashmir will become Pakistan,

Islam defines our relationship with Pakistan." He nails the lie that governor Jagmohan had conspired to this exodus of Kashmiri Pandits, and says there is another untold story behind it." Firstly, there were already reported killings and sloganeering prior to the arrival of Jagmohan. Secondly, if it was Jagmohan conspiracy, we could and perhaps should have proved that by shielding their belongings when they left. What should we have done? We should have at least safeguarded their properties. But contrary to this, we looted it and sold their taps, electricity wires and window locks separately. If this would not have occurred, maybe we could have been in a position to blame Jagmohan". He requests fellow Kashmiri Muslims to "think just for 10 minutes, when they are cool and enjoying their farming, could there be a bigger calamity worse than leaving the paradise called Kashmir and struggling in the scorching heat of India? Can you leave Kashmir, your land, your own home, your own memories "? He is bold, writes his heart out and concludes," I hope a day will come when we Kashmiri Muslims come out and welcome our Pandit brothers to Kashmir. That day, the social body of Kashmir will completely recover its lost soul and start afresh."

Immediately after reading this re-assuring piece, I called my friend in Srinagar, who at that particular time was enjoying the warm sunshine though it was chila- kalan at its peak. I just enquired if he knew this brave young man personally and his reply was terse," You know Captain, there are many- many of us like him, young and old, men and women and you know this too, we have no takers". I was silent, but he continued, "Markaz (means Centre, New Delhi), as always, does not need someone like Irfan. And let me now hang up.

I have been wondering since, why did my friend hang up, why did he not want to involve himself in a conversation that he started. When I called him again, he was once again evasive. But this time he said, "We will talk when we meet". We had a detailed discussion on the subject and he was as wonderstruck as we all are, about the way the present government in New Delhi is pursuing its policy on Kashmir. Well, who does not know that Nehru made a blunder by taking the case to the United Nations and thus giving legitimacy to Pakistan as an interested party and since then it has been the tale of repeated blunders?. My friend was candid and he made no bones about it," What is wrong with you guys (meaning Hindus)? You defeat the enemy on the battlefield and he defeats you on the negotiating table.", "And", he continued," you probably are the easiest people to sweet talk to".

He was right when he said that India has not learnt its lessons vis a vis Pakistan. "Are we not rewarding them by involving ourselves with them at official talks at various levels, be it the National Security Advisors or Foreign Secretaries or even at the level of Ministers of External Affairs, every time they attack us?" He had a point and thought it wise to keep my trap shut.

"It is not only Pakistan they surrender to, they even surrender to these ghar goondas ... I asked him who was he referring to and without batting an eyelid he said," These rootless separatists who are in the limelight courtesy Markaz", and to prove his point, he asked me to go through 'Kashmir: The Vajpayee Years' by A.S. Dulat. I somehow wanted to call it a day and thought of stumping him by asking for a solution to this problem, but he shocked me by giving a very simple three-point solution.

1 Treat Pakistan as just another country, at best a neighbouring country. We are unnecessarily obsessed with it

2 Just ignore the separatists and look for people like Irfan Gull and provide them the same if not more official/political backing that is being given to these anti Indian elements.

3 Reopen cases against known terrorists, now masquerading as 'leaders', in fast track courts and punish them as per the IPC, at least half a dozen of them will be sent to the gallows.Is somebody listening?

DISCLAIMER: 

The views expressed in the Article above are Shiben Krishen Tikoo   Anil Mam  views and kashmiribhatta.in is not in any way responsible for the opinions expressed in the above article. The article belongs to its respective owner or owners and this site does not claim any right over it. Copyright Disclaimer under section 107 of the Copyright Act of 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, education, and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing."

Courtesy: Shiben Krishen Tikoo   Anil Mam  and Koshur Samachar 2016, February