Recently, I was asked to voice my opinion ‘are hartals genuine’ among my friends who also happen to be my classmates. I made it clear that strikes serve no purpose and we need to change the strategy in this globalized era. This outdated means of protest can't work in a situation like this. It spoil our ailing economy. The valley has suffered a great deal already. It is lagging behind on every front, be it education, technology, development, governance!

Right from the time, the simmering anti-India discontent turned into a full blown rebellion in 1989, Kashmir every now and then has given itself to strikes and agitations. This has crippled life here by consuming more than four years time, according to the statistics. Today separatists continue with the same method even after the futility of the method has been understood by one and all. When emerging trends have revolutionized the world, here our society is stagnated with shutdowns and deaths.

For secessionists, strikes appear a tool to fight against the innocent killings which only adds woes to the lives of more people. We sideline the people who are living hand to mouth, whose survival depends on laborious daytime earning. The agitation of 2008 too served no purpose. In turn Kashmiris suffered on all counts. Be it academics, healthcare, tourism, business and to complete the rout loss of sixty lives.  Once again it appears pro-freedom leaders have not learned anything from the past. They have not done any introspection. They are repeating the same mistakes by calling strikes which serve no purpose.

Strikes cripple the life of everyone here, from student to an employee, labour to a businessman, it spoils the minds only. It makes individuals lazy thereby making the whole society lethargic. On academic front, it squeezes out the days of our calendar. Already three months are consumed by the winters in this unfortunate part of the world due to the lack of proper infrastructure to meet the chill. We must have been more serious in compensating the loss, but we are adding to the problem. Now the situation has come to such a pass that we have become addicted to it.

A  large chunk of youth are unemployed in Kashmir. This problem of joblessness has to be solved not to be complicated. If we go the way we are going, things can't improve. We can only move from bad to worse. So the need of the hour is to think about our wellbeing. Sooner we realize this fact, better it will be for all of us.

(Moazum Muhammad Bhat is Journalism student at Kashmir University and can be reached at moazumbhat@gmail.com)

Lastupdate on : Thu, 1 Jul 2010 21:30:00 Mecca time
Lastupdate on : Thu, 1 Jul 2010 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Fri, 2 Jul 2010 00:00:00 IST