It is strange that Indian Home Ministry lowered itself to the status of a SIM card handler in Kashmir! We will remember 2009 for this fantastic non-sense.

Year 2009 will be leaving today only to hand us over to 2010. As a customary note we will be finding newspapers and electronic media bidding farewell to 2009 by talking about events that marked this year. Besides, TV channels will celebrate the moment by producing special programmes.
In Kashmir what will we remember this for! The unkindest cut of all inflicted on us at Shopian. Exposure, made by JKCCS, of the silent sites of a diffused massacre conducted overtime by Indian troops. Working Group recommendations and the bizarre response that it invoked from unionist political parties. Shall it run down our memory as the Mehboba’s year of Self Rule, or else we remember it by the comical comments of Ali M Sagar that Autonomy is now just a step away!
But what to do with NHPC. That beast of a company that is sucking blood out of us all. Shall we not then remember 2009 by the high voltage current that NHPC sent down our spine! We have been declared incapable of running the Baglihar power project also. It will now be run by NHPC. The share that we get from the electricity produced from out water resource is just some drops; gallons are for them to feed their cities, industries and offices.
So making a mockery of the mainstream politics, mutilating our honor, taking our lives away and robbing us off our resources – we have witnessed all. And we have been watching it all through out the decades of ‘being with India’. These are the enduring images which only deepen their impressions every day India inflicts a fresh wound on our life, and our resources. But just for the sake of it we will talk of a monumental non-sense (with a complete disregard to all the intelligence dossiers about the issue) that was committed by the Home Ministry.
Some months back an announcement was made to the surprise of one and all. Pre paid connections were to go. Apart from covering the detail of the decision and its impact no serious attempt was seen to critically look into it and find out the reasons that precipitated such a ban. Although a slew of explanations were thrown but none of them was compelling. Finally the explanation that stayed was that the ban was provoked by the security alerts sounded on account of the unending protests and stone pelting witnessed through out the year, and also during 2008. in the same line of explanation another news that is doing rounds in the streets is that ‘stoners’ ( pelters and providers both) have been given ‘incentives’ to keep them away from protests. It means both carrot and stick is being used for the purpose of state. Nothing special in it, states have always been doing it.
Should someone ask the Home Ministry that protests and stone-skirmishes (Kane-e-Jang) were the salient feature of Kashmir politics from ’30 onwards. About the sops and incentives, there is nothing new in it. The problem has even then stayed. What purpose would it serve if Pre paid connections were severed, except making a fool of whosoever did it! If such people could get a pre paid connection what would hinder them from getting a post paid connection. Nothing. They are no illegal immigrants or criminals who will be facing a problem in getting their antecedents verified. It then sounds like a crack pot idea that Pre Paid ban can ‘win’ Kashmir to India.  If there were some problems in the procedure of securing a pre paid connection it could easily have been rectified by consulting the service providers. But no, Kashmir is always looked at as a law and order problem. A security ‘mission’. Further the sticks are flailed randomly when it comes to a Kashmiri head.
After ‘huge’ attempts by the state government and the lobbying of service providers (this is what we are made to believe through reports, otherwise who knows what cooks inside) Home ministry has finally made its mind to lift the ban. What could have been ordinarily solved was allowed to turn into a huge public problem which made many suffer monetarily and otherwise too. What was the point banning it if it was lifted so soon. Home Ministry could have waited a while, looked a bit deeper into the proposal and suggested some simple changes into the procedure - the problem would not have risen at all.
Now was it to engage us with a non issue, deter protesters, allow service providers to make some quick buck, or some other reason known to people at Gupkar and their counterparts at  Delhi – it was a PrePosterous thing that happened in 2009. And we will make the beginning of the 2010 with the same. They say the connections will be restored. Good! But we ask why were they barred in the first place. But this is what happens when a state looks at people through the prism of suspicion and security. It acts like a mad man, heaping shame over shame on itself.
On a more serious note it is the very spot of oppression where the oppressor gets ultimately undressed. Naked to all the world, he stands finally like an idiot raising smile from all who pass the spot by. Vietnam put America to shame and so did Afghanistan to Russia. All the Intelligence and Power come to naught when time announced the arrival of justice. But before that final moment of shame comes, oppressive powers suffer occasional disgrace. It happens even when it could easily be avoided. If that be a lesson learnt, India should always revive its policies and thinking about Kashmir if it has to skirt disgrace. Reports and dossiers from Gupkar are not always correct, rather they are more often than not engendered by prejudice, malice, deceit and an intense desire to rule Kashmir through fraud. Even when the issues remain undecided democracies should try to perform in a decent and reasonable way.

(Columnist is GK Magazine Editor. Feedback at mrvaid@greaterkashmir.com)

Lastupdate on : Wed, 30 Dec 2009 21:30:00 Makkah time
Lastupdate on : Wed, 30 Dec 2009 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Thu, 31 Dec 2009 00:00:00 IST