Expecting justice from the present government is futile.  Earlier, people thought otherwise when government came to power. It looked serious and there seemed to be a genuine concern in its words for the people of Kashmir. The oft quoted remark of the present government that “It believes in actions and not words” has proved out to be a facade.  By actions, if they mean that they are establishing community halls, parks, providing food, water and other basic amenities, they are deluded for they are providing these things at the cost of our honour, precious lives of our youths and they have added to the gloom, anxiety and the feeling of alienation among Kashmiris. And all this has furthered the gap between the government and the people. The frequent killings have driven and strengthened the wedge between the government and the people. We are different from animals in that animals only need these basic amenities that the present government boasts of, but we as human beings need something more than that, which is denied to us.  It has robbed us of our human element in us and reduced us to animals whom they can butcher anytime, anywhere.  Under the prevailing circumstances one feels so sad for the present government for it has failed to win the confidence of Kashmiris and solve the basic problems.  It stands exposed in the eyes of everybody, although none among them was ever a real representative of the wishes and aspirations of the people of Kashmir and all of them know it very well that they do not have any representative character.
They must tender an apology to the people of Kashmir and resign from their posts for they have only inflicted pain, suffering and atrocities on them. They  could not expose the criminals behind Shopian rape and murder. They only promise that guilty will be brought to book, but could not do anything. And then, on the directions of the central and state governments, the case was given to CBI to hush up the matter and to implicate the innocents. Those who stage fake encounters, implicate innocents have been given unbridled powers. The governments constitute commissions after commissions to look into the different matters and then, once they subside, they hush up the matter.
To say that governments are there only for governance and to provide basic amenities to the people and not for revocation of AFPSA and demilitarisation, speaks of apathy. It's an admission of the fact that they can't assert their position because even animals have those basic amenities like food, water etc. Even a common man can discern the intent behind staging fake encounters and committing other atrocities on the people of Kashmir, and that is, to justify the presence of troops, get promotions and to draw a political mileage out of all this.  Then there are others who go to console the bereaved families not out of sympathy for the victims but out of their own ulterior motives. In short, we Kashmiris are caught between the devil and the deep sea. 
For generations they have been befooling us in the name of basic amenities and we allow ourselves to be fooled by them for we have no conscience.  Shakespeare says in one of his plays, “One can smile, smile and be a villain” stands true to the rulers of Kashmir, for they kill us with a smile on their hypocritical faces and the next day they announce compensation. How long will they play hide and seek with the people? Tufail is killed and the government is observing criminal silence over the gruesome act, and instead of taking action against the erring troops, they have caged us in our homes by imposing undeclared curfews and thus made us psychic patients.  It is pathetic on the part of the state government that they do not take concrete steps to revoke AFPSA and demilitarise Kashmir for there is no militancy here and no infiltration takes place. Unless the long standing issues like revocation  of AFPSA, demilitarisation and Kashmir issue  are resolved, there will be no peace in South Asia in general and Kashmir in particular.

(Dr Tasleem Ahmad War is Assistant Professor at Deptt of English, University Of Kashmir)

Lastupdate on : Mon, 21 Jun 2010 21:30:00 Mecca time
Lastupdate on : Mon, 21 Jun 2010 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Tue, 22 Jun 2010 00:00:00 IST