The bloody tunnel in which all of Kashmir is trapped right now is proving too long to catch the sight of an end. Looking back into time, the gory turmoil is now spread over a period of almost two months, having consumed more than two dozen lives, mostly teenagers. One of the most chilling entries to the list of dead is a 7 year old boy, who was reportedly beaten to death by CRPF personnel in the Batamaloo area of Uptown Srinagar. It’s  a terrifying incident which can unnerve even the most peaceful in the world. What explanation can the troopers put forth to justify the killing of this kid, and which system in the world has the heart to buy that explanation. But in Kashmir each death gets covered up by the next, and one nerve wracking incident hides behind another shivery scene of blood spilling; as if the entire Valley has been demarcated as a battleground where death gets explained all by itself.  In such a circumstance how is the cycle of violence going to break! How can the mobs be expected to exhibit calm when dead bodies are handed over to them every other minute! If even a trained force, that has an organizational hierarchy, and disciplined structure behaves in an uncontrollable way, don’t blame poor people on the street who are only driven by anger and an acute sense of frustration. The rage within people is only getting stoked with every single bullet fired straight into the chest of a protester. It’s better to approach the problem from this end rather than jumping over to the other. People in the Valley are under the impression that a war has been waged against them, and this impression is getting strengthened with every single bullet shot, every single smoke canister fired, and each drop of blood dripped on the streets. It is preposterous, and in fact fundamentally anti-people, if people are asked to first contain their rage and then only State would reciprocate by relaxing the iron grip. That is only bound to escalate the violence. The first thing to do in this kind of a condition is to accept the failure, make a frank admission of brutalities having been committed against protesters, and send a clear cut directive to the troopers that they cannot taken the lives of people for granted. It’s a nihilistic politics if troopers are defended at the cost of the lives of common people. And in this situation asking for more Companies to tackle the situation is like ordering bulls for an already ransacked China shop.  When the Kashmir has echoed in the Parliament it is time to impress upon New Delhi that an envoy or a team of Parliamentarians should be appointed to visit Kashmir and take a first hand stock of the situation. Farsightedness, and not force, is the key to solution.  How long can this war be waged against the people of Kashmir! How long can the people be jailed in their houses by resorting to unending curfew! The mounting pressure of the situation has already forced people to defy curfew. In almost all the major towns of the Valley people have erupted out into the streets in spite of curfew having been in place. This only shows that how desperate they have turned.  If the mood of people is not accurately gauged, and if police and CRPF are not reinforced on the importance of applying restraint, things can spin out of control in such away that all the policy wonks would toss their heads against the void. Bullets, barricades, batons and concertina wire serve only as a grim reminder that a war has been declared against the people of Kashmir. Replace these belligerent symbols with benign and people friendly measures. Listen to the grasshoppers before the ominous strikes! 

Lastupdate on : Tue, 3 Aug 2010 21:30:00 Makkah time
Lastupdate on : Tue, 3 Aug 2010 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Wed, 4 Aug 2010 00:00:00 IST