The news titled “Padma Shri to Kanna whips up controversy” (GK, Feb 3) has shocked and surprised many, God knows why! If somebody is being awarded for his “exemplary” service, why should Kashmiris feel stomach cramps? Why should we express a surprise over such moves? The “contribution” of Kanna, for which he has been awarded, is unique, seen purely from New Delhi’s perspective. If Kanna has “got 5000 militants arrested” and many more killed, that is a ‘big contribution’ for a country like India, which has been working hard over the years to wipe out militancy from Jammu and Kashmir. And Kanna, like his profession, has been brave enough to admit that he has been doing the job of an informer since the onset of militancy. So given this parameter, the Padma Shri to him should not come as a surprise at all. If Dr Farooq Abdullah, Ghulam Hassan Mir and Wajahat Habibullah have ‘recommended’ Kanna’s name for the “prestigious” award, why are Kashmiris surprised? If a party, any party, can give rise to renegad-ism, why shouldn’t it promote renegades? Or why shouldn’t its leaders recommend renegades for such awards, which after all, are meant for those who have done “exemplary service” in different fields? If anything, at all, should surprise us, it is this: that ‘our’ academics, who have been the recipients of such awards, have let us down. It is not that they are renegades. Yet, there is no difference between the ‘renegades’ and them, at least in the eyes of India, who have put these academics and renegades on a same pedestal. A former vice-chancellor of the University of Kashmir, Prof Hamidi Kashmiri, received the same award that Kanna, the counter-insurgent, received. Only the nature of the work varied. Some years back, Prof Rehman Rahi received Gyan Peth award. We don’t want them to return the awards like Arundhati Roy. That would be asking for the sky. Yet, they can do a big favour by at least telling India not to equate them with renegades at least, for, that is damaging the credibility of other academics and intellectuals, who somehow, try to maintain the academic standard in their institutions while serving the nation with their pen.
Syed Zubair Ahmad
Pulwama, Shopian

Lastupdate on : Mon, 8 Feb 2010 21:30:00 Makkah time
Lastupdate on : Mon, 8 Feb 2010 18:30:00 GMT
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