As the situation is becoming impregnable to any breakthrough, there are columns of worries that forbiddingly march towards us. Taciturnity might be the running wisdom, but the fearsome shapes ominously laying siege to minds refuse to conjure away. This state of affairs, where people have a bagful of fears but are afraid to unzip it, will inexorably put pressure on the already flustered minds. The idea is not to censure the logic of the present political mobilization. Neither is it to subject the resultant condition to any excoriating scrutiny. Now that a crisis has pitched its camp in the valley and it looks like a walk on the ground of Nile with the water forming the wall on right and left - we will all drown or reach across to the safer land, together. Our political positions, economic interests, and communal prejudices will live only if we touch the shore before the walls of water on either side collapse into each other burying us all underneath; so even our petty and vile are contingent on making it to the line. The worry that asks for tongue is that how can Kashmir skirt the danger of any implosion along different fault lines that have been worked over relentlessly, and operated whenever needed, by the cartel of agencies pandering to multiple power centers. The safest way is to desist altogether from approaching the fault lines where the application of ideas and actions by the concerned parties is bound to be discrepant. A respectful admission that the ideas of difference, accommodation and tolerance are cardinal to human civilization, and that they rest at the core of every religion, can mark the beginning of the movement away from the fault-line along which things can rip apart most ferociously. There is absolutely no element of surprise if the talk of communal tension is being sounded up in the valley; after all the communal division has been always made use of in Kashmir by those who have a wicked way of doing politics. Though up till now the collective response of Kashmiris to this threat has been exemplary, with no amount of provocation fermenting any trouble along this fault line, there is a need to think long term and profound on this subject. The ideas expressed by Syed Ali Shah Geelani on this are all welcome; they bolster the confidence of a common man that the disinclination of Kashmiris to fall into this trap is greater than the instigation jetting forth surreptitiously from labyrinthine, yet faceless, structures.  But there is one cause of consternation; this subject needs expression that is consummate with the current understanding of communal and minority. If that can be worked on, a larger audience worldwide can be drawn in and a message sent out that in Kashmir safety of property and person is not subject to communal or religious denomination. Secondly, the responsibility of the people who, without them having to do anything with that, belong to majority needs regular reminding. If Kashmir succeeded in not falling prey to the hounds prowling for communal blood, in 2008, it is an encouraging memory, yet not a reason for complacency. Geelani and others have to keep an unflinching gaze on any shadow flickering near this line. How the present phase of political mobilization in Kashmir redounds on us largely depends on how alert and informed the leaders, and the masses as well, are about the vicious spins in the politics that can unsettle even the most grounded. Just a poignant allusion; Rapid Action Force has already marched on our streets. This is the force that was established in December 1991 with the purpose that it will be actuated into action in case there is large scale communal riot and related public disorder. Those who sail in the ‘Mainstream’ of politics in Kashmir may please take note of this. One doesn’t find a security, or a secular, sense in requisitioning companies of this Force.

Lastupdate on : Tue, 10 Aug 2010 21:30:00 Mecca time
Lastupdate on : Tue, 10 Aug 2010 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Wed, 11 Aug 2010 00:00:00 IST