Separatist parties are back to the centre stage. With the announcement of ‘Quit Kashmir’ program, and walls and roads graffitied ‘Go India, Go Back’, waters of Azadi politics are on a new high. After the surge of 2008 summer, it’s second time that people have, in a way, laid siege to the control that always rests with state power. The normal functioning of the state and the routine of life have come to a halt, and everyone is unsure of what is to follow. To get clued about what is happening in Kashmir we can refer to what happened in 2008 summer. 

For the entire summer of 2008 people remained in a state of protest. Huge rallies swarmed across Kashmir and to the shock of all, 1990 became a live thing. What happened in the summer 2008 could never have been envisaged just weeks before it happened. Before summer 2008, it was a forgotten thing that people think of some political demand which goes beyond a bridge, road or a job. State government and New Delhi as well, had concluded that the post 1989 memories, with their impact have been washed away completely. And if there are some traces they will get cleared with the passage of time. All of a sudden Kashmir was taken over by an oceanic movement of people on the roads, proving the statist evaluation of things absolutely wrong.

As is in the nature of things, summer 2008 agitation lived its life and tapered away. The punitive actions taken by the government inflicted loss of life and property and this led to the timely exhaustion of people. Further the 2008 summer agitation concluded with the dissolution of the government, paving way for Governor’s rule. Afterwards we saw State Assembly elections happen. If 2008 agitation was away from the expectations, the public participation in 2008 election was far away from the expectations that had formulated in the wake of that agitation. Why people participated and how that participation was later interpreted is a separate debate but there is an important point which can connect the present agitation to that of 2008.

All the Mainstream parties excessively relied on making a distinction between governance and Kashmir issue. They wanted people to vote for better roads and enough food. Remember Bijli, Sadak, Paani! At the same time they assured people that once in power they will impress upon New Delhi to solve the Kashmir issue. But once elections were over, the higher voter turn out deceived them into complacence. They forgot to work on an area that was most important and held the key to Kashmir politics. Leaving aside the question of governance, the arrogant dismissal of a dominant political reality which could be seen at its highest when the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh thought it politically wise not to offer any talks to the Separatist camp, when he visited Srinagar just sometime ago, is what brought to Kashmir what it brought.

Once again the essential political reality of Kashmir has sucked the people towards it. Once again the authorities are facing the 2008 like situation. Now on the one hand Kashmir has more than a dozen deaths to be mourned over and on the other it is gripped by an incensed euphoria driving people to streets despite knowing what it can bring to them.  As an impartial observer one might not completely reject the possibility of controlled inputs to perpetuate this situation, but the presence of people is a central reality. It’s unmistakably a people’s moment. And in this moment those who subject it to rigorous academic debates or shrewd political analysis are, knowingly or inadvertently, denying people the space that they are so furiously asking for.

The statements of some politicians within and outside Kashmir, and the discussions in the Indian media, are diabolically drifting things in a direction where people suddenly turn absent. What is essentially and overwhelmingly people becomes a handiwork of ‘agencies’, ‘instigation of separatists’ or a social problem embedded in economy. This advised failure to face the subject when it’s staring us all into our eyes is the greatest danger hovering around the skies of Kashmir. This has proved fatal in past and will prove only lethal in the future. When things are ‘explained’ so eloquently to frighten people, it simply turns sick.  When some Mainstream Kashmiri politicians froth to secure their position in the grand scheme of Delhi one wonders at the mere abominable depths a person can sink to. When their ‘political opponents’ rewind the tape to ‘misgovernance’ and ‘healing touch’, with a snigger one wishes ask; isn’t it getting nauseous.

And then we have politicians sitting in Delhi. They all pat the back of Indian armed forces that are already defended by legal framework. We have an Abhishekh Sanghvi who calls it a ‘temporary aberration’. We have some Ravi Shankar Prasad who invokes Hindu Nationalism to defend the actions of   Indian armed forces. We have ex and serving officers of Indian security organizations who deliberate on the utility of AFSPA (Armed Forces Special Powers Act). It’s a long line of ludicrous and lacerable.

And then to cap it all, we have some trim and pert TV journalists who want us believe that they can run India from their studios. Their funny ways deserve a chapter in Gulliver’s Travels. There ways of covering today’s Kashmir are not just inadequate, but highly corrupt. They have a strange knack of discovering the themes that are never present on ground. Sitting in their studios they brashly question all when the viewers in Kashmir laughingly question their ability and intent to talk about the issue itself.

When this is how it all gets represented, it’s bound to have a maddening effect. When the people of Kashmiri should have been the central concern, and the focal point of all debates and news, they being nudged out of the frame cleverly. This has a disastrous consequence for us. It takes the mind out of it all. Kashmir bursts with anger coupled with the tormenting affliction of losing lives. It loses all control over itself, and understandably so.

{The columnist is GK Magazine Editor. Feedback at mrvaid@greaterkashmir.com}

Lastupdate on : Wed, 21 Jul 2010 21:30:00 Mecca time
Lastupdate on : Wed, 21 Jul 2010 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Thu, 22 Jul 2010 00:00:00 IST