While many parts of Kashmir valley were still reeling under curfew on Sunday the Chief Minister reached out to a section of Srinagar society. Talking to representatives of various associations, small scale industries owners, hoteliers, travel agents, houseboat owners, artisans, taxi operators, shopkeepers, shikara owners unions, transporters and some prominent citizens, he endeavored hard to address the aspirations of the people by delinking Kashmir problem from the ‘local governance’. He sounded reasonable in stating that the Kashmir issue was a political issue calling for a political solution, which was possible only when all the stakeholders made sincere efforts in this direction. He, in fact reiterated what he had said during the visit of Prime Minister Manmohan Sing, to Qazigund in 2009; that the economic packages can have their role but these alone cannot address the aspirations of the people of the state. Seeking cooperation from a section of society for bringing peace in the State and enabling him to address the day to day problems of the people the Chief Minister did make some valid points, but what he failed to appreciate was that the good governance did not mean only enabling people to buy groceries. Kashmir has the highest concentration of troops. Many important institutions have described it as ‘the highly militarized zone’ with highest army-civilian ratio. In a situation like this good governance in the first instance means providing people a sense of security, and a peaceful life.  It is not groceries that have been bringing people on the streets. More than anything else it is the imperiled sense of security that is the cause of anger in a whole generation of youth more particularly those born and brought up in turmoil. Without going that far if a dispassionate and honest analysis of the event, from the killing of Inayat Ahmed Khan 17, on January 8, 2010, or of Wamiq Farooq, 13, on January 31, 2010 to the cold blooded murder of Tauqeer Rather 9, on June 28, 2010, is conduscted, it would be revealed that there are many chinks in the government’s armor. It is the mind-set of the troops that has been playing catalytic role, adding fury to the anger of a whole generation of the youth. The Chief Minister does sound well meaning when he tries to reach out to the people, but on ground the Government machinery instead of mollifying the anger has been adding fuel to the fire. More than a thousand youth during past ten days have been arrested from different areas within city, and outside. A good number of them were picked up from the cricket fields and the football grounds. And the government is now contemplating to book all these boys under Public Safety Act. Booking a class eight student allegedly for hurling pebbles has no precedence in the contemporary history of Kashmir.  The government has booked a teenager Sheikh Ikram of Jogilanker Rainawari, Srinagar under the Public Safety Act (PSA) and sent him to Kotbalwal jail in Jammu. There are reports that just one police station is preparing to book two hundred or more youths under the PSA. What is ironical and painful is that the District Magistrates who only have the authority to invoke the PSA have not been using their discretion. Instead they are only authenticating the police actions. This policy of booking school going children under the PSA act, and sending them to jails outside for two years is a very disturbing phenomenon with far reaching dangerous implications. There is need to understand that this witch-hunt policy or shrinking space to political dissent is not going to lead the State anywhere. Rather than  bringing normality to the State it is sure to complicate the situation. The Chief Minister instead of following a section of blindfolded bureaucracy needs to use his own discretion. That discretion demands that all arrested youth be sympathetically dealt with, by revoking PSA against them. Releasing them all would serve the purpose better than keeping them behind the bars.

Lastupdate on : Mon, 5 Jul 2010 21:30:00 Mecca time
Lastupdate on : Mon, 5 Jul 2010 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Tue, 6 Jul 2010 00:00:00 IST